Irrelevant, incoherent, upstaged in El Paso
By Jennifer Rubin
Opinion writer
February 12 at 9:45 AM
President Trump went to El Paso, which he falsely said had been rampant with crime before border construction, to whip up his base in favor of a wall. Before he could take the stage, however, congressional negotiators reached a tentative deal to reopen the border — with 55 miles of bollard fencing, but no wall. Meanwhile, at a nearby location, Beto O’Rourke gathered a crowd of thousands to celebrate American values ...
Trump, who might not have known the outcome of the negotiations before taking the stage, hollered at the crowd that he’d build the wall no matter what. He egged on the audience as it chanted “Lock her up,” more than two years after beating Hillary Clinton in the presidential race and while under scrutiny himself in a slew of investigations ... It’s the same nonsensical, incoherent rambling that only his hard-line base appreciates; to others, he sounds unhinged and desperate ...
... O’Rourke took the higher ground. “We, together, we are making a stand for the truth against lies and hate and ignorance and intolerance,” he told the crowd. “We are going to show the country who we are.” He declared, “With the eyes of the country upon us, all of you together are going to make our stand in one of the safest cities in the United States of America. Safe not because of walls but in spite of walls.”
Trump and his apologists could vent their anger, claiming that Democrats wanted “open borders.” The reality, however, was that Democrats and Republicans without Trump could reach a common-sense border security deal. No wall is needed. The country at large, which staunchly opposed the shutdown and never supported a wall, is likely to react positively to news of the deal — unless, of course, Trump has another temper tantrum and shuts the government down. At this point, however, not even his own party in the Senate likely would support him on that score ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/02/12/trump-upstaged-el-paso/?utm_term=.63d3f31d92af
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