MSNBC host Joe Scarborough mocked and ridiculed President Donald Trump for only repairing existing fencing instead of building a new wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, Newsweek reports.
Scarborough began the segment by playing a video clip of Fox News anchor Shepard Smith explaining that Trump has not delivered on his campaign promise, managing to only repair border fencing erected under President Obama, instead of building a concrete wall along the southern border as he had promised.
“No new wall has been built, none,” Scarborough began.
“In fact, the only thing that Donald Trump has done is he’s rebuilt 60 miles of Barack Obama’s wall, which really is not going to be that catchy of a chant in 2020,” he said, jokingly adding that Trump will have replace his famous “build the wall” with a more appropriate motto such as “rebuild Obama’s wall.”
“Rebuild Obama’s wall, rebuild Obama’s wall,” the host chanted, mocking the president.
“But that’s what he’s doing,” Scarborough added.
Scarborough also pointed out that the Republican Party controlled both chambers of Congress during Trump’s first two years in office, arguing that wall would have been built during that time period, had GOP lawmakers been supportive of the initiative.
The host concluded the segment by suggesting that a wall along the border would not even do much to curb illegal immigration or stop the influx of illicit substances, as Trump has argued.
“You can build a wall, but you can go over it, you can climb under it,” he said.
According to Rolling Stone , fences were erected on southern border decades ago, and some of the fencing was refurbished during the Obama administration.
Furthermore, according to The Pacific Standard , border fencing has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support — for instance, in 2006, the Bush administration pushed a bill providing 1.4 billion for 700 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. Prominent Democrats such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Chuck Schumer voted for the bill.
Joe Scarborough: Half of America, Melania Trump Cried Night Trump was Elected President https://t.co/Zkv6jhNoGa
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) August 30, 2019
Although Trump has campaigned and attempted to govern as an immigration hardliner, he is yet to match Obama’s deportation numbers. As Axios reported, citing government data, during Obama’s tenure total ICE deportations were above 385,000 each year between 2009 and 2011.
Per The Inquisitr , Department of Homeland Security recently confirmed to the press that “not a single mile of wall has been built where no barrier previously existed.”
Trump has, however, insisted that his border barrier is under construction, sharing via social media video footage meant to demonstrate that new walls are being built “despite total Obstruction by Democrats in Congress, and elsewhere!”
