Fox Host: Trump’s Border Wall Showdown Is a ‘Read My Lips Moment’
President Donald Trump‘s surrogates have begun to shift expectations of the commander-in-chief’s border wall promise to something they’re now calling a “fence,” but Fox Business Network host and regular Fox News guest David Asman warns that if Trump fails to deliver the “wall” that his base expects, it would be Trump’s “Read My Lips moment.”
On Wednesday afternoon’s edition of Fox News’ Outnumbered, co-host Melissa Francis tried the fence trick by telling the panel “I would like to use my Wonder Woman Lasso of Truth and force everyone in the conversation to be intellectually honest that we are not actually talking about a wall. I mean, we never have been, we’re talking about a fence.”
Asman said that he agreed with Francis “up to a point,” but added that “The wall is a very specific thing for the president’s base. For the president’s base the wall, those words, ‘The Wall,’ means a lot.”
“This is one of the ‘read my lips’ moments for this president,” Asman added, referring to the now-famous campaign slogan that came back to haunt former President George H.W. Bush. “If he is viewed by his base as caving on the issue, no matter how they try to spin it at the White House, already some of the base is beginning to fray a little bit worrying that the president is giving up on this.”
Francis isn’t the only one peddling this talking point. Earlier Wednesday morning, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway also tried to claim that it is Democrats who are “trying to make this about a wall,” but that this is really just about “border security.” Conway also tried to conflate previous Democratic support for a “fence” with Trump’s current demands, which are still for a “wall.”
Whether or not Trump’s devoted fans will desert him over the distinction between a “wall” and a “fence” is an open question, but the facts say that a fence, instead of a wall, would be a broken promise.
At a press conference in January 2017, CBS News national correspondent Major Garrett asked Trump about a “border fence,” and also referenced the still-broken promise that Mexico would pay for it. Trump scolded Garrett, and accused him of “misreporting.”
“On the fence, it’s not a fence, it’s a wall,” Trump said. “You just misreported it. We’re going to build a wall.”
Trump similarly corrected then-presidential rival Jeb Bush during the primary campaign, noting the “BIG difference” between a fence and a wall:
Jeb Bush just talked about my border proposal to build a “fence.” It’s not a fence, Jeb, it’s a WALL, and there’s a BIG difference!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2015
Asman did go on to argue that Trump “has a point” by comparing the $5 billion funding request for the wall with the size of the entire 2019 federal budget, but his analysis of Trump’s promise was quote clear. If Trump doesn’t build a wall and make Mexico pay for it, Trump will be the one paying for that failure with his base.
Watch the clip above, via Fox News.
[image via screengrab]
