Political editor Sophia Tesfaye told Hill.TV on Monday that President Trump’s base will never view him as ineffectual on the issue of border security.
“I think there needs to be a counter message,” Tesfaye, deputy politics editor at Salon.com, told host Jamal Simmons on “What America’s Thinking” when asked whether Democratic presidential hopefuls should come up with their own border security plan.
“I don’t think with [Trump’s] base of voters, he’ll ever resonate as ineffectual on the border even if the wall never is resurrected,” she continued. “He has positioned himself as the only person willing to fight for it.”
“The Republican Congress has shown itself as ineffectual in that they’re not even willing to have a conversation with him, so I think it behooves Democrats to say ‘we will have a conversation, and these are our terms,’ ” she said.
Trump failed to secure funding from Congress for his long-promised border wall earlier this year after the federal government partially shut down for weeks over the issue.
He later declared a state of emergency at the border in an effort to secure funding.
There are other major signs that the president is looking to bring more immigration hard-liners into the administration.
Outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned on Sunday amid reported differences with Trump over Department of Homeland Security authorities when it came to asylum-seekers.
NBC News reported Nielsen’s resignation was also triggered by Trump’s renewed push to resume a policy that resulted in the separation of migrant children from their families at the U.S. border with Mexico.
— Julia Manchester
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. hill tv
