The June 28th debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a two-pronged disaster. Much has been made of Biden’s “senior moments” as well as Trump’s 30-plus false claims. There is a growing number of “liberal” national media outlets, led by The New York Times, calling for Biden to step aside for a younger and more coherent candidate. Sadly, less attention has been More
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Drawing by Nathaniel St. Clair
The June 28th debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a two-pronged disaster. Much has been made of Biden’s “senior moments” as well as Trump’s 30-plus false claims. There is a growing number of “liberal” national media outlets, led by The New York Times, calling for Biden to step aside for a younger and more coherent candidate.
Sadly, less attention has been focused on Trump’s use of immigrants and immigration as the embodiment of what threatens American life. He invoked the immigrant “threat” often and repeatedly as the primary cause of all that ails the country. The following half-dozen quotes from CNN’s debate transcript illustrate just how far Trump will go to identify his enemy.
With regard to job creation, Trump declared:
“The only jobs he [Biden] created are for illegal immigrants and bounceback jobs; they’re bounced back from the COVID.”
With regard to the threat immigrants pose, he argued:
“There have been many young women murdered by the same people [immigrants] he [Biden] allows to come across our border. We have a border that’s the most dangerous place anywhere in the world – considered the most dangerous place anywhere in the world. And he opened it up, and these killers are coming into our country, and they are raping and killing women. And it’s a terrible thing.”
Going further, Trump insisted:
“He [Biden] decided to open up our border, open up our country to people that are from prisons, people that are from mental institutions, insane asylum, terrorists. We have the largest number of terrorists coming into our country right now. All terrorists, all over the world – not just in South America, all over the world. They come from the Middle East, everywhere. All over the world, they’re pouring in. And this guy just left it open.”
If that was not bad enough, he added:
“He’s [Biden’s] the one that killed people with the bad border, including hundreds of thousands of people dying, and also killing our citizens when they come in. We – we are living right now in a rat’s nest. They’re killing our people in New York, in California, in every state in the union, because we don’t have borders anymore. Every state is now a border.”
“And because of his ridiculous, insane and very stupid policies, people are coming in and they’re killing our citizens at a level that we’ve never seen. We call it migrant crime. I call it Biden migrant crime.”
“They’re killing our citizens at a level that we’ve never seen before. And you’re reading it like these three incredible young girls over the last few days. One of them, I just spoke to the mother, and we just had the funeral for this girl, 12 years old.”
“This is horrible what’s taken place. What’s taken place in our country, we’re literally an uncivilized country now.”
“He doesn’t want it to be. He just doesn’t know. He opened the borders nobody’s ever seen anything like. And we have to get a lot of these people out and we have to get them out fast, because they’re going to destroy our country.”
“Just take a look at where they’re living. They’re living in luxury hotels in New York City and other places.”
When asked how he would address the financial problems besetting Social Security, he replied:
“But Social Security, he’s [Biden’s] destroying it. Because millions of people are pouring into our country, and they’re putting them on to Social Security; they’re putting them on to Medicare, Medicaid. They’re putting them in our hospitals. They’re taking the place of our citizens.”
“They’re – what they’re doing to the V.A., to our veterans, is unbelievable. Our veterans are living in the street and these people are living in luxury hotels. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. And it – it’s really coming back. I’ve never seen such anger in our country before.”
Assessing Biden’s presidency, Trump insisted:
“He wants open borders. He wants our country to either be destroyed or he wants to pick up those people as voters. And I don’t think – we just can’t let it happen. If he wins this election, our country doesn’t have a chance. Not even a chance of coming out of this rut. We probably won’t have a country left anymore. That’s how bad it is. He is the worst [president] in history by far.”
Trump’s anti-immigrant rants at the recent debate are nothing new. In a revealing November 2023 New York Times article, Stephen Miller, a former Trump White House aide and chief architect of border control efforts, stated, “Trump will unleash the vast arsenal of federal powers to implement the most spectacular migration crackdown.”
Trump’s 2024 campaign is anchored in targeting immigrants as the nation’s #1 domestic enemy. He promised to “carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history” once in office.” At a December 2023, New Hampshire rally, he ranted:
“They’re poisoning the blood of our country. That’s what they’ve done. They poison — mental institutions and prisons all over the world. Not just in South America. Not just the three or four countries that we think about. But all over the world they’re coming into our country — from Africa, from Asia, all over the world. They’re pouring into our country.”
And in March 2024, in an interview with Right Side Broadcasting Network, he identified immigrants as: “They’re rough people, in many cases from jails, prisons, from mental institutions, insane asylums. You know, insane asylums — that’s ‘Silence of the Lambs’ stuff.”
Going further, at a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, MI, in April 2024, Trump was most venomous, insisting:
“The Democrats say, ‘Please don’t call them animals. They’re humans.’ I said, ‘No, they’re not humans, they’re not humans, they’re animals’ … Nancy Pelosi told me that. She said, ‘Please don’t use the word animals when you’re talking about these people.’ I said, ‘I’ll use the word animal because that’s what they are.’”
Most disturbing, in April 2023, the Heritage Foundation released its Mandate for Leadership, dubbed “Project 2025: Presidential Transition Project.” It’s a 900-page overview developed by rightwing groups as a road map for a second Trump administration.
With regard to immigration policy, Project 2025 calls for the dismantling of the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) and its reintegration into “a stand-alone border and immigration agency”; the privatization of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA); the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would be expanded to “expedited removal” – i.e., speed up the deportation process – to expand immigrant apprehension from the current 100 miles of the border to the entire country. In addition, Entire visa categories – including “T” for temporary and “U” for crime victims – would be curtailed; asylum or refugee status would be severely gutted. Is
It is very scary when a leading politician, especially one who might be elected president in a few months, targets the nation’s alleged “enemies” as people “poisoning the blood of our country,” let alone “animals.” Making matters all the worse, this candidate’s policy “think-tank” has put together a program of action for the mass arrests, imprisonment and deportation of possibly millions of “enemies.”
Given this vision, one can only ask how far could such a policy go? In December 2023 at a townhall campaign rally with Sean Hannity in Davenport, IA, candidate Trump made his political agenda very clear:
“We love this guy,” Trump said of Hannity. “He says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’ I said: ‘No, no, no, other than day one. We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.’”
How long he would be a “dictator” was never considered.
In German during the Nazi reign, the list of state enemies was ever-increasing. It included Jews,Jehovah’s Witnesses and Roma people (i.e., Gypsies); political opponents (e.g. communists, socialists, trade union leaders); people who engaged in “deviant behavior” (i.e., homosexuals, allegedly promiscuous women, alcoholics); and anyone unable to hold a job, was homeless and a habitual or career criminal.
Trump’s current “enemies” list includes immigrants. One can wonder what other “enemies” will be added to his enemies list?
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