Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) stunned CNN anchor Jake Tapper on Wednesday after claiming the southern United States border is “secure.”
The border crisis is once again front and center in the national debate as a new wave of migrants surge into the U.S., overwhelming border cities already stretched beyond their limits. The issue — specifically increasing funding for border security — is also one of the major sticking points in the debate on Capitol Hill about passing a short-term funding bill to avert a government shutdown.
Such funding isn’t necessary, according to Pressley, who told Tapper the border is already “secure.”
“No doubt about it, our border is secure. And we are in the midst of a humanitarian crisis, and we have to fix a broken system, and we ought to…” the Democratic congresswoman claimed.
“You think it is secure? You think the border is secure? Or it’s not secure?” Tapper followed up.
Pressley responded by expanding her point about a “humanitarian crisis,” which Tapper agreed with. Then he asked Pressley a second time whether she actually believes the border is “secure.”
“The border is secure,” she declared a second time.
Tapper presses Democratic lawmaker after she says US – Mexico border is securewww.youtube.com
Pressley then tried to shift the conversation back to the government shutdown. But Tapper was aghast at her claim.
“But if you have millions of undocumented migrants coming into the country, how is the border secure?” he asked.
Pressley failed to answer the question, prompting Tapper to break out the textbook definition of “secure,” concrete proof for why she was wrong.
“I’m not disagreeing with anything you’re saying except for the idea that the border is secure. If you have people crossing border, it’s by definition not secure,” Tapper said.
“Because [the border] is not secure, [migrants] go on this journey, and one of the arguments that is made — and maybe you disagree with it — is that the border should be secure so as to discourage people from making this journey,” he continued. “But it just seems like just such a refusal to acknowledge reality to say that the border is secure when we all know millions of people are crossing the border illegally every year.”
After Pressley pontificated and attacked Republicans, Tapper gave her one more opportunity to be honest about the border crisis. When she responded that it “is a conversation for another day,” Tapper ended the interview.
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