Sunday shows preview: Southern border situation; Trump ballot decisions

The current crisis at the southern border will likely be the focus of this week’s Sunday news shows.

Earlier this week, a migrant caravan of reportedly at least 6,000 people left a city in southern Mexico heading toward the U.S. The Biden administration is trying to raise pressure on the Mexican President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to set tighter limits for migrants who cross from Mexico. According to a report by CBS News, in the first 27 days of December, border patrol processed 225,000 migrants — a record-high count.

Republicans have gone after the president for vacationing in St. Croix amid the current border crisis. 

“Joe Biden’s vacationing in the Virgin Islands while the southern border is in crisis,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said in a release this week. 

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Homeland Security Adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall met with López Obrador in Mexico City to discuss the border situation.

Earlier this month, the Senate adjourned without a deal on funding for Ukraine or border security, ending a historically unproductive legislative session. Its members are not scheduled to come back until early January.

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), whose own congressional district lies on the southern border, will make an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.” Last week, he said that illegal crossings at the border are “hurting” the president’s campaign.

“My district is about 80 percent Hispanic Democratic, and guess what? When I go to church or when I go to the store, what are people telling me?” Cuellar said on NewsNation’s “The Hill.” “‘Henry, you got to secure the border. We got to do something.’”

While the current president is facing an uphill battle with the border, former President Trump is facing his own struggles when it comes to being kicked off ballots. 

On Thursday, Maine became the second state to kick Trump off of the state’s primary ballot under the 14th Amendment. Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) said she had concluded the former president “over the course of several months and culminating on January 6, 2021, used a false narrative of election fraud to inflame his supporters and direct them to the Capitol to prevent certification of the 2020 election and the peaceful transfer of power.”

Bellows’s decision made Maine the second state to take such an action, after the Colorado Supreme Court last week via a 4-3 ruling.

“Mr. Trump’s occasional requests that rioters be peaceful and support law enforcement do not immunize his actions,” she said. “A brief call to obey the law does not erase conduct over the course of months, culminating in his speech on the Ellipse. The weight of the evidence makes clear that Mr. Trump was aware of the tinder laid by his multi-month effort to delegitimize a democratic election, and then chose to light a match.”

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) is set to make an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” where he will likely discuss the Centennial State’s Supreme Court decision to kick the former president off of the ballot.

Below is the full list of guests scheduled to appear on this week’s Sunday talk shows:

ABC’s “This Week” — Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio); former Trump White House staffers Alyssa Farah Griffin, Cassidy Hutchinson and Sarah Matthews.

NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.); Govs. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), and Spencer Cox (R-Utah).

CBS’ “Face the Nation” — Denver Mayor Mike Johnston (D) and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D).

CNN’s “State of the Union” — Gov. Chris Sununu (R-N.H.); Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.); Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.).

“Fox News Sunday” — Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) and Tony Gonzales (R-Texas); Jared Bernstein, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” — Robert O’Brien, former national security advisor; Reps. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) and Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas); Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R); Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York.