Trump Speech: Republican Senator Graham Gives Glowing Response
Moments after President Donald Trump gave about an 8-minute speech lobbying for a steel barrier along the U.S.-Mexico, both support and rebuttals got televised around the world.
While Democrat leaders called Trump's border wall a "manufactured crisis," Republican lawmakers and media from the right said Trump's speech was right on mark.
Take Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina who gets as much face time as any other senator. Graham said Trump had perhaps his best showing so far as commander-in-chief.
"This is the most presidential I've seen President Trump," Graham said on Fox News immediately after Trump's speech. "It was compelling and everything he said was true."
Trump said "the border wall would very quickly pay for itself."
"The cost of illegal drugs exceeds $500 billion a year — vastly more than the $5.7 billion we have requested from Congress," Trump said from the Oval Office. "The wall will also be paid for, indirectly, by the great new trade deal we have made with Mexico."
Trump used other numbers from the last two years like:
266,000 — arrests of illegal aliens with criminal records
20,000 — migrant children brought into the U.S. illegally
30,000 — sex crimes by illegal immigrants
4,000 — violent killings
100,000 — assaults
"There are already walls along the barrier [between U.S. and Mexico], we just need to extend those walls where it makes sense," Graham said.
"All the president is saying is, "I'd like to provide more security to the American people."
Graham went on to say Democrats have said in the past they want to provide money for security on the southern U.S. border. But now?
"I'm flabbergasted to hear from my Democratic colleagues that voted for billions of dollars in border security money, that this is manufactured," Graham said. "Was it manufactured when Obama wanted the money? No. Why did you give the money to Obama and Bush if it was a manufactured crisis?"
Graham acknowledged Fox Hosts Sean Hannity's sentiment of a human and drug trafficking problem across the southern border, and both seemed to agree that "98 percent" of the people crossing the border were people seeking a better life in America.
Then Hannity asked, "if we lose 4,000 lives, is that a manufactured crisis?"
Graham quickly said, "How many caravans do we have to have rush the border before we have a problem? … Every Democrat you've heard from tonight has voted for border security, but when it comes to Trump, they say "no.""
As for the government employees on furlough, Graham said he's "sorry, but you'll get your back pay."
Graham mentioned recent killings of Americans by illegal immigrants and went on to say, "To all those people who have lost loved ones from illegal immigration, your loved ones are not coming back. So I'm bound and determined to see this one through."
Of course, there was drawback on Trump's speech from Democrat lawmakers like Senators Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders, newly-elected Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and newly-elected representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
