“Suddenly, Democrats are engaged in this issue in a different way than they had been,” says David Axelrod.
Former Obama adviser David Axelrod claimed on CNN that the busing of migrants into sanctuary cities has “been very effective” at forcing Joe Biden and Democrats to shift positions on the issue of illegal immigration.
“[T]he change is that more and more Democrats are taking — voters — are taking a hard line. It looks as though the White House, the President is seeing that and kind of following their lead,” began Inside Politics host Dana Bash on Saturday.
Axelrod, now CNN Senior Political Commentator, commended Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R-Texas) strategy to bus migrants into “sanctuary cities” because it forced Democrats to address the issue they would have otherwise ignored.
Axelrod responded, “Yes. Two points on this: Whatever you think about what Gov. Abbott (R) has done, it was diabolically clever, because by shipping these migrants to cities that call themselves…sanctuary cities, he has created issue[s].”
“I come from Chicago,” he continued. “Chicago has been torn apart by this issue. New York has been torn apart by this issue. And suddenly, Democrats are engaged in this issue in a different way than they had been. So, that has been very effective.”
Axelrod went on with the talking point that it’s former President Donald Trump and Republicans who are holding up meaningful negotiations on border security.
“I think that the President has responded by engaging in these very difficult negotiations, agreeing to some of the most dramatic measures to deal with the border that we’ve seen in a very long time,” he said. “And now, what we see is Donald Trump telling his people, don’t agree to that. I don’t want Biden’s name on the bottom of that bill. That will help him.”
“And so, that gives the White House an offensive position, which is, we’re here to try and solve a problem. He wants to exploit it. He wants to weaponize the problem. We don’t have ten months to wait to deal with this problem. I think it’s an effective counterpoint,” he added.
What Axelrod failed to mention is that the Biden administration’s policy over the last three years has been to systematically open the border which allowed 10 million illegal migrants into the U.S.
