Let’s get some clarity on the worst Trump administration policy so far.
- The Trump administration has made a policy of separating children from their parents at the border, for the express purpose of deterrence, that is, terrorizing people to keep them from attempting to cross the border. John Kelley said as much on the record, as did Jeff Sessions when he announced the policy.
- The Trump administration is now gaslighting us, denying what we all heard them say about their deliberate policy of tearing families apart. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Sunday on Twitter, “We do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period.” Trump himself has repeated the lie, over and over again, that families are being separated because of a nonexistent law passed by the Democrats.
- The children are being held in cages. The officials who deny there are children in cages, are denying what we have already seen. We have an unedited, confirmed audio recording of children wailing and crying for their parents. The recording lasts 7 minutes 47 seconds. Listen to the whole thing if you can. I can’t.
- Mitch McConnell has said that a “narrow fix” to the problem is needed. “I support, and all of the members of the Republican conference support, a plan that keeps families together while their immigration status is determined,” he claims. And yet: every Democrat in the U.S. Senate has cosponsored the “Keep Families Together Act,” a bill that would only allow undocumented children to be separated from their parents if there is evidence of parents abusing the children or children being trafficked. Sounds like a pretty narrow fix. But for all the hand-wringing and concerned noises being made by Republicans, not one Republican has endorsed the bill.
- Rank and file Republicans don’t bother pretending to oppose the policy. A new poll shows that 55% of Republicans approve of the family separations.
So to review, we have a Republican policy, that the framers of that policy are lying about. We have Republican officials opposing the policy, but not supporting a bill that would put an end to it. We have a solid majority of rank and file Republicans approving of a policy that can only be characterized as evil.
Let’s remember this when a Republican stands up, now and in the future, to tell us the difference between right and wrong. They have no standing to talk about morality. They are solidly and unapologetically behind evil.