I wish I could say I’m shocked or even surprised by the revelation made by Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) at a town hall meeting in Arizona last Friday, but I’m not… The Federal Government has been turning a blind eye to the problems along our southern border for years.
George W. Bush may not have been as blunt about it, but in reality President Obama is simply picking up right where Bush left off.
The whole clip is worth watching, but the money bit comes at around the 3:20 mark:
Update (Tuesday, June 22, 2010): I should note the White House is denying that Pres. Obama ever told Sen. Kyl that, Sen Kyl is of course standing by his remarks:
This morning, a White House spokesman told ABC News that Kyl is lying. “The President didn’t say that and Senator Kyl knows it,” communications director Dan Pfeiffer told ABC. “There are more resources dedicated toward border security today than ever before, but, as the President has made clear, truly securing the border will require a comprehensive solution to our broken immigration system.”
Now, in an interview with KVOI radio in Arizona, Kyl says his account of the Oval Office conversation is accurate. “What I said occurred did occur,” Kyl said.
“One way you can verify the validity of what I said is that that’s exactly their position,” Kyl continued. “Some spokesman down at the White House said no, that isn’t what happened at all, and then proceeded to say we need comprehensive immigration reform to secure the border. That is their position, and all I was doing was explaining why, from a conversation with the president, why it appears that that’s their position.”
After Kyl’s radio interview, a Kyl spokesman sent a note emphasizing the senator’s point. “There were two people in that meeting and [spokesman] Dan Pfeiffer was not one of them,” spokesman Andrew Wilder said. “The White House spokesman’s pushback that you must have comprehensive immigration reform to secure the border only confirms Kyl’s account.”
Oh brother, what we have here is good old fashioned game of he said he said… There’s no way to verify who’s telling the truth here. I’m more inclined to believe Sen. Kyl for the simple reason actions speak louder then words and as I wrote yesterday, the Federal Government has been turning a blind eye to the problems along our southern border for years. Barack Obama isn’t doing anything differently here than George W. Bush did… They both pushed for comprehensive immigration reform paying lip service to improving border security. It’s just more of the same old same old.
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