If anyone traveling the halls of Congress runs into a deeply worried Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., or Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. — there’s a good reason. The Democrats have left the impression with their constituency that they punted the ball on one of their biggest issues: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
The anger and resentment from the Hispanic community is so intense that surrogate Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., the DNC’s favorite attack dog, started the blame game.
Kaine made a name for himself as Hillary Clinton’s vice-presidential running-mate in 2016. He became notable during his debate with Republican vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence, interrupting him a record 73 times in the one hour and 30-minutes debate.
There Kaine was on the Sunday talk show circuit, programmed to blame President Donald Trump. The president, always capable of getting under the liberal’s thin skin, had suggested Democrats had all but abandoned the so-called Dreamers during budget bill negotiations.
Feisty Tim would have none of that, even if it was true. Guesting on the always safe haven for liberals, CNN's "State of the Union," he said, "He [Trump] is either lying or he is completely delusional." He was politely referring to the fact that Democrats avoided including a fix to the DACA into 2019’s budget bill.
Kaine was insistent that this was entirely the president’s fault. With heads bobbing at CNN he added, "If President Trump believes in DACA, all he has to do is retract an executive order where he broke a promise to Dreamers when he said he was going to end the program," Kaine said.
He was referring to Trump’s executive order in September 2017 ending DACA. Kaine failed to add that the entire program as it stands now is not a law by any measure. Naturally the president sees it differently, but for some strange reason, the other side of this argument was not examined on CNN.
What Kaine came to fight about was the president’s press conference last Friday. Trump claimed that "They (the Democrats) fought every inch of the way. They did not want DACA in this bill." This came after Trump had reluctantly signed the second largest spending bill in American history at $1.3 trillion.
The DACA program was instituted in 2012 by former President Obama. It was meant to protect illegal immigrants who arrived as minors. It covered about 800,000 illegal immigrants, many of which are well into their 30’s today.
Kaine’s convenient memory neglects to say the president offered the Democrats a deal that provided the protections they wanted in exchange for additional funding of $25 billion for his long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall; something the Democrats have voted for in the past few years.
He also failed to mention the Democrats thought they could use the politically explosive issue to their advantage. But Trump, who is a legendary negotiator, turned the tables on them. While they stomped their feet and threatened to shut down the government, Trump went to the media.
The president left them speechless by giving them more than they wanted. He literally called their bluff. Additionally, he offered them a long-term extension on the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and delays on some unpopular healthcare taxes.
Trump had them where he wanted them. Polls indicated the public wasn’t as interested in the DACA issue as Democrats had hoped. It looked likely that their party would absorb most of the blame with their tactics. Besides, polling indicates that Hispanics themselves are evenly split on whether to combine a DACA deal to the building of a wall.
Now it appears that Rep. Pelosi and Sen. Schumer are the hypocrites on illegal immigrants problem. For all their reported compassion, they are being singled out by their own base for failing the DACA illegals. Trump has outfoxed them providing a very different view of the left's so-called inclusiveness.
Dwight L. Schwab, Jr. is an award-winning national political and foreign affairs columnist and published author. He has spent over 35 years in the publishing industry. His long-running articles include many years at Examiner.com and currently Newsblaze.com. Dwight is an author of two highly acclaimed books, "Redistribution of Common Sense - Selected Commentaries on the Obama Administration 2009-2014" and "The Game Changer - America's Most Stunning Election in History." He is a native of Portland, Oregon, a journalism graduate from the University of Oregon, and a resident of the SF Bay Area. To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.