CNN’s Tapper Puts GOP Senator Squarely on the Hot Seat About Migrant Bus ‘Trolling’: ‘Do You Really Have No Issue With Using Human Beings’ Like This?
CNN’s Jake Tapper confronted Senator Mike Rounds (R-SC) on whether his fellow Republicans have any reservations about taking advantage of migrants in order to score political points against liberal politicians around the country.
Rounds joined Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union to discuss the uproar from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) busing illegal immigrants to Democrat-led cities, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) flying migrants to Martha’s Vineyard. Tapper asked Rounds if he supports what Abbott and DeSantis are doing when some immigrants claim they were falsely told they would have jobs and housing waiting for them in Massachusetts.
“They’re doing their best to try to send a message to the rest of the nation about the plight of those individuals that are coming from south of the border,” Rounds answered. “They’re trying to send a message to the rest of the country that this is not acceptable, and that their states can’t handle that type of an inflow. That’s an equivalent of four times the population of my state of South Dakota.”
Tapper responded by noting the bus full of migrants, including a 1-month-old baby, which was just dropped off near Vice President Kamala Harris’ official residence at the Naval Observatory earlier this week.
“I get they’re trying to send a message, they’re trying to get the attention,” Tapper said, “but isn’t there a degree of trolling going on here? Do you really have no issue with using human beings, a 1-month-old baby, little kids to make a political point like this?”
“You have to put it in perspective of what’s happening at the southern border right now,” Rounds answered. “This is every single day, thousands of individuals coming across with babies. They’re coming into those states. Those governors are facing that, not just in terms of 50 of them. They’re talking about hundreds of them, if not thousands per day.”
“Do any of us like the situation that we’re in? Absolutely not,” Rounds continued. “As a matter of fact, I would suspect that the individuals in the southern states that are trying to find a way to get the attention of the administration would love to have other alternatives to them. It’s been 606 days since Joe Biden took office, and this problem has done nothing except continue to develop. This is a national problem, and yet these governors along the southern borders are the ones faced with trying to address it.”
Watch above, via CNN.
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