'd take the wall down,' says Beto O'Rourke of current border barriers

[Judi Lynn]

Source: NBC News

Six hundred miles of walls and fencing along the border has "not in any demonstrable way made us safer," the former congressman from El Paso said.



Beto O'Rourke speaks with Chris Hayes on Feb. 14, 2019.All In America - Live at The Border

Feb. 14, 2019, 8:55 PM CST
By Doha Madani
Beto O'Rourke said he would take down existing walls and fencing at the U.S.-Mexico border if he were able to.

O'Rourke, a former U.S. congressman for El Paso who ran a high-profile challenge against GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, said in an interview with MSNBC's Chris Hayes on Thursday, "Absolutely, I'd take the wall down."

His comment came in response to a question posed on Twitter by Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas. "If you could snap your fingers and make El Paso’s border wall disappear, would you?"

The GOP representative said in his post that fencing and other border barriers have caused illegal crossings to drop significantly.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/i-d-take-wall-down-says-beto-o-rourke-current-n971896

[Yosemito]

1. Beto is bold

This is gonna put pressure on other democratic candidates to state whether they would do the same.

[duforsure]

2. Anything this illegitimate president does,

Should be reversed and removed, including any wall he has anything to do with. The majority are against anything trump does too.

[WhoWoodaKnew]

3. Yeah, that message won't work with swing voters

Sorry, you can't just expect swing votes to support candidates who would let anyone walk into our country. You can pretend that that message will work but it will crash and burn at the voting booth.

[Owl]

4. +1

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Where in any remarks from ANY Democrat has anyone said

that they "would let anyone walk into our country"?

There are NONE.

Meanwhile the GOP "business" owners HAVE brought in hundreds of thousands if not more of undocumented workers to work in places like the President's hotels and resorts, in the poultry slaughterhouse factories and meatpacking facilities, and in the farm fields.

What does the "swing voter" think about that?

Here is what O'Rourke DID say (from the OP article) -

O'Rourke said fencing has forced migrants to the most inhospitable areas of the southern border, "ensuring their suffering and death.” More than 4,000 migrants have died as a result, O'Rourke said.

"They’re dead, over the last 10 years, as we have walled off their opportunity to legally petition for asylum to cross in urban centers, like El Paso," O'Rourke said. "To be with family. To work jobs. To do what any human being should have a right to be able to do."

[WhoWoodaKnew]

6. You go ahead and let Democratic politicians campaign on tearing down the barriers that are in place

and you'll see us get slaughtered at the polls.

This is a VERY stupid strategy that the swing voters will reject. Just watch.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. You completely missed the point of what I wrote

by repeating sound bites and ignoring everything else that was said.

I will repeat - NO Democrat has called for "allowing anyone to come into the country" unchallenged. Democrats want a process for citizenship put BACK into place because right now, because the GOP has pretty much tried to torpedo the asylum-seeker process while they sneak undocumented workers in under cover of darkness to work under the unsavory business owner's OWN slave-like terms.

THIS is what the "swing voter" needs to know.

And based on your assertion, you would need to put a border wall around the entire country - including the largest one - Canada. And let's not forget the coasts.

[WhoWoodaKnew]

8. I'm telling you right now that if our candidates campaign on tearing down the stuff that's already

there then we will be soundly rejected by swing voters and a crap load of people all over the country.

Beto is making a MAJOR mistake.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. They DO need to tear down ineffective stuff

and put up more EFFECTIVE stuff. THAT is the point.

You give "swing voters" little credit for any intelligence.

As it is, this only affects FOUR states that border Mexico and 3 of those 4 already have Democrats who have taken over or are in the process of taking over both state governments AND federal congressional seats. So your argument is ridiculous.

Edit to add - a shift is even happening in Texas.

[WhoWoodaKnew]

10. Donald Trump is our president. Why would you give swing voters the benefit of the doubt at all?

[BumRushDaShow]

11. What?

The GOP lost the House in 2018 - and primarily due to WHO is in the WH. THAT alone tells you what "swing voters" think because the vast majority of "swing voters" live in suburbs across the country, including border states, and that is where the big uptick of votes were coming from. If anything, the election of a Democratic Senator in Arizona, which is a border state, was a wake-up call regarding "swing voters".