On Tuesday, CNN’s host of OutFront, Erin Burnett, lamented President Joe Biden is being slammed by his own party for his immigration executive order and took the opportunity to hype him as a moderate on the issue.
Burnett noted that immigration is an important issue to the American people and reminded viewers that “Biden consistently polls far below Trump on the issue and asked Ron Brownstein, CNN’s senior political analyst, if he thought this attention would help Biden as he campaigned. Brownstein answered that the public opinion on immigration and immigration policy always move in different directions, “from my experience writing about this since the early 1990s when Republicans are in, when Trump was in, there was pretty broad resistance to a lot of the hardline measures that he pursued…”
then compared Biden to Trump's administration. He observed that “there is now much more support from any of the harsher things that Trump wanted to do. I don't think Biden can close that gap given all that’s happened in the last few years, but I do think that adopting this, which was kind of the sharpest tool in the armory of that bipartisan Senate bill gives him more ground to stand on to say, look, I'm taking reasonable steps to secure the border, and this allows him I think also a stronger position to criticize some of the things that Trump wants to do in a second term.”
Burnett turned to commentator and former Obama official Van Jones and asked him if the public would give him credit for doing something on the border or still blame him for the chaos. He confidently answered, “I think now he's being accused of playing politics with immigration when the problem is that the Republicans have been playing politics with immigration.”
He continued to defend the Biden as he noted that he “is not somebody who likes to do executive orders that he thinks the courts aren't going to approve. That's why he waited so long.”
Not only did Jones ignore all of Biden’s student loan executive orders, he was not going to stop there. He decided to target Republicans a little more as he added “The reality is Republicans have a strategy here. They scream ‘fire’ at the border, they spread the fire around by shipping migrants all over to blue cities, and then when somebody tries to bring a firehose, like Biden, they step on the firehose.”
To bolster Biden’s supposed moderate credentials, Burnett played two soundbites from progressive Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA).
Biden waited until five months before the election to finally do something about the border and now CNN is helping him portray himself as a centrist.
Click "Expand" to view the transcripts:
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: NEW BORDER RESTRICTYIONS TAKE EFFECT AT MIDNIGHT TONIGHT]
(...)
ERIN BURNETT: And, Ron, this is consistently one of the top -- if not the top issues as Americans rank them of what they care about for the election, Biden consistently polls far below Trump on the issue of immigration.
But you just heard Ayanna Presley, even from the left of his own party, he's being slammed for this.
Is this going to help him?[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: “DISAPPOINTED” DEMS COMPARE BIDEN BORDER ACTION TO TRUMP WH]
RON BROWNSTEIN (CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST): I think it will actually. Some immigration public opinion tends to move in the opposite direction from immigration policy. That's from my experience writing about this since the early 1990s when Republicans are in, when Trump was in, there was pretty broad resistance to a lot of the hard-line measures that he pursued, separation, obviously, of kids and their parents at the border, remain in Mexico.
Under Biden, there's a broad sense that it's too tolerant. And there is now much more support from any of the harsher things that Trump wanted to do. I don't think Biden can close that gap --
BURNETT: Yeah.
BROWNSTEIN: -- entirely in -- given all that’s happened in the last few years, but I do think that adopting this, which was kind of the sharpest tool in the armory of that bipartisan Senate bill gives him more ground to stand on to say, look, I'm taking reasonable steps to secure the border, and this allows him I think also a stronger position to criticize some of the things that Trump wants to do in a second term-BURNETT: Yeah.
BROWNSTEIN: -particularly mass deportations.
BURNETT: Yeah. And we'll see what it does, especially with -- I mean, this is obviously not targeted as the base of his party. It's targeted at moderates that he needs to win.
But, Van, you know, while Biden says he's doing this because Republicans wouldn't, as I pointed out, there's been what more than 400,000 people cross the border since that bipartisan bill failed, 200,000 migrants have come into New York City since the spring of 2020 -- of 2022, 200,000, Van.
I mean, I've just curious and as I said, nearly seven million since he's taken office, do you think, Van, that people are going to see this the way Biden wants them to, or are they going to say, look, all these people come in and -- came in under Biden's leadership and he owns that 7 million.
VAN JONES (CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR): Look, it's hard to know how the public is going to see it. But I think now he's being accused of playing politics with immigration when the problem is that the Republicans have been playing politics with immigration. The last thing Biden wanted to do was to move on his own and to use executive authority that the courts have raised an eyebrow at.
Biden is not somebody who likes to do executive orders that he thinks the courts aren't going to approve. That's why he waited so long.
BURNETT: Right.
JONES: The reality is, Republican to have a strategy here. They scream fire at the border, they spread the fire around by shipping migrants all over to blue cities, and then when somebody tries to bring a fire hose, like Biden, they step on the fire hose. They don't let Congress act.
And so, he's got a little pail of water on his desk. He's trying to throw it on the fire because all that's left to him. But it’s Republicans who should own this last chunk because Republicans had a chance to do something, they had a chance to solve the problem. They wouldn't even support their own bill because they would rather hurt Biden and help the country.
And that's the real problem here. That's real politics here.
BURNETT: Ron, though, when you look at Democrats, I mean, you've got some that are happy that Biden's doing this, you know? But you have some who are slamming it. In fact, for what you say, because they're saying, oh, it's like Trump did and they actually aren't okay with that.
I mean, here's just two today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): I'm disappointed that the president has, you know, has sort of gone into the same frame as Donald Trump at a very time when we need to make a distinction between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
SEN. ALEX PADILLA (D-CA): It's disappointing to see an attempt to return to the same policies that were proven to fail in the Trump administration.
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