Brunswick Beacon, 03.21.24
CNN’s Poll shows 62% of Americans liked President Biden’s State of the Union address, including his remarks on border security: “In November, my team began serious negotiations with a bipartisan group of senators. The result was the toughest set of border security reforms we've ever seen. That bipartisan bill would hire 1,500 more security agents and officers, 100 more immigration judges to help tackle the backlog of two million cases, 4,300 more asylum officers, and new policies so they can resolve cases in six months instead of six years.”
As Biden spoke, Senator James Lankford (R-OK), who Republicans authorized to negotiate with Biden, said:” That’s true” and nodded his head.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) called it, “good, solid policy,” but Trump ordered Republicans to kill it. “He doesn’t want to solve the problem,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), “because he wants to blame Biden for it.” Romney called that “appalling.” Tillis called it “malpractice” and “immoral.”
Republicans compounded the problem by nominating drama queen Katie Britt (R-AL) to respond to Biden’s speech. Britt, who had followed Trump’s orders and voted against border security, made matters worse by breathlessly lying about Karla Jacinto, who she suggested was sex-trafficked by Mexican drug cartels in Texas and raped repeatedly because of Biden’s border policies.
Jacinto condemned Britt’s lies. She never lived in nor sought asylum in the US. Jacinto met Britt with other government officials and anti-human-trafficking activists, not one-on-one as Britt claimed. Jacinto was trafficked by a pimp, not drug cartels, in Mexico, not the US, from 2004-2008, when George W. Bush was president. Her ordeal had nothing whatsoever to do with Biden.
“I hardly ever cooperate with politicians, because it seems to me that they only want an image. They only want a photo — and that to me is not fair,” Jacinto told CNN.
Trump got his way. Britt got her photo-op. Jacinto got used. And Republicans got the Oscar…for gaslighting.
Kristine Garrity
Calabash