Democrats can run from Joe Biden’s border crisis but they cannot hide from it.
That was, essentially, the message Fox News reporter Hillary Vaughn had for Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) during a brief but tense exchange on Capitol Hill Wednesday on the issue of the record numbers of illegal immigrants who continue to surge the southern border into the United States thanks to the lax policies of the Biden administration.
Vaughn caught up with Johnson in a busy hallway to get his answer to the question, but instead of acknowledging the problem, Johnson – incredibly – told her in so many words that it didn’t exist.
“People are breaking the rules, paying a criminal organization to do so, to get to the front of the line. Does that concern you?” Vaughn asked.
Johnson’s initial response was to ask Vaughn “Have you ever been to the border before to see what’s happening?”
Vaughn nodded back to Johnson before he could finish the question, telling him “Yes, I have, I’ve spent a lot of time at the border, yeah,” which you would think would surprise Johnson and give him pause before he uttered his next sentence.
But it didn’t.
“You didn’t talk with the right people, apparently,” Johnson suggested. “’cause your information, your question’s based on, you know, your questions are kinda off base.”
Watch:
REPORTER: Does the smuggling of illegal immigrants across the southern border by criminals concern you?
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 27, 2023
DEMOCRAT HANK JOHNSON: "Have you ever been to the border?"
REPORTER: "Yes"
JOHNSON: "You didn't talk to the right people" pic.twitter.com/iLyxKWzeGR
Perhaps Johnson should have a little chat with Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens who unlike Johnson is at the border and has direct experience into exactly what’s happening there each and every day:
U.S. Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens says cartels are "profiting" off Biden's border crisis as they use illegal immigrants to smuggle drugs:
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 27, 2023
"Millions of dollars a week in revenue … going directly into the hands of the cartels and those smugglers" pic.twitter.com/5R12hlDpqF
Bill Melugin, a colleague of Vaughn’s who has been thoroughly covering the border crisis for over two years now and who frequently fact-checks the Biden White House on their claims on this issue, had this response:
Wow.
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) September 27, 2023
Fox colleague @hillary__vaughn asked Democratic Congressman @RepHankJohnson about record high illegal crossings at border.
His response?
“They’re not crossing into the U.S. illegally. They're sitting at the border seeking asylum.”
Completely detached from reality.
“Completely detached from reality” is a pretty good way to describe Johnson, who once infamously expressed concern during a 2010 House Armed Services Committee hearing that Guam would “tip over and capsize” from having so many military personnel on it.
Though Johnson is one of many Congressional Democrats who prefer to look the other way as the crisis worsens, there are in fact Democrats who take this issue seriously, like Eagle Pass’ fed up Democrat mayor Rolando Salinas who in recent days has been ripping the Biden-Harris administration over their inaction, telling reporters that he and the residents of Eagle Pass “feel abandoned” by them.
El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser, who is also a Democrat, declared Saturday that his city had come to a “breaking point right now.”
Despite Johnson’s gaslighting and the Biden White House’s continued spin, all available polling evidence suggests not only that a majority of people in this country are seeing right through it, but that thankfully the issue will also be a big deal for them going into the 2024 elections.
This from Guam tipping over Johnson is just as stupid.