Mike Pence sinks to a whole new low

As per usual, Mike Pence is full of it. On Friday, Pence visited detention facilities, which have been kindly characterized by some as โhell,โ and determined that the conditions there are unacceptable. In an interview with CNN, Pence said that this was โthe reason why we demanded that Congress provide $4.6 billion in additional support to Customs and Border Protection.โ He went further, saying in reference to the vast disparities between the facilities he visited, โWhat you saw today was a very clean facility where people were being detained indoors, and then you saw a temporary facility that was constructed because this facility is overcrowded. And we can’t keep people in a cell beyond what the rules and regulations allow for, but everyone in that temporary facility is getting health care, … Customs and Border Protection is doing their level best … but Congress has got to act.โ
Two things: pinning this on Congress was predictable, and Congress funding Customs and Border Protection wonโt fix Trumpโs thoroughly inhumane policy of treating vulnerable children and adults like vermin. Pence might have said he thought these conditions unacceptable, but if he really wanted to take a stand, heโd go to his boss and tell him off. Heโd side with congressional Democrats and demand a substantive change in policy. But no. The White House wheeled out Pence to do some damage control as a proxy for Trumpโs inability to anything but damage. Imagine Trump visiting these facilities; thatโs why they sent Pence.
It should also be noted that one of the facilities Pence visited, the Donna Processing facility, was a few orders of magnitude less egregious than the facilities that have been making news as hell on earth. Itโs not hard to imagine that Penceโs itinerary for this trip to the border included the Donna facility to show that itโs not a complete blunder at the border. The White House knew that it would have some effect in shifting optics into less unfavorable territory for at least some of the population. Penceโs argument was simple: look at how inoffensive these facilities, and by extension our shitbrained policy, can be if we just have enough funding!
The problem for the White House is that I think this had the opposite effect. It put on display the horrible mismanagement of the manufactured border crisis and the extent to which the Trump administration doesnโt know what itโs doing. Penceโs visit was at best tactless, and at worst counterproductive for the White Houseโs own agenda. What happens next is anyoneโs guess, but itโs about time for someone to step up and right this abominable wrong.
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