For months, Republican politicians warned that a humanitarian crisis was looming at the southern border.
In turn, Democrats accused them of “manufacturing” the crisis for political purposes.
But now those same Democrats are suddenly pointing fingers and assigning blame for something that up until a few weeks ago they claimed didn’t exist.
Without evidence, Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Karen Bass (D-Calif.) accused the Trump administration in a recent interview of “torturing” children at the border to force Democrats to work with him on a wall. Bass was responding to false reports that circulated about how kids were allegedly being deprived of toothpaste and soap.
Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke blamed the administration for the heartbreaking plight of a migrant father and his young daughter who were found dead in the Rio Grande after trying unsuccessfully to cross its waters.
“Trump is responsible for these deaths,” he tweeted shortly after the story broke.
The most outspoken of them all has been Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who refused to budge on the Trump administration’s request for $4.5 billion to alleviate the humanitarian issues at the border.
“Not one dime should go to DHS for building these camps as they detain children & families,” the freshman Congresswoman said in a tweet two weeks ago.
In another tweet a few days later, Ocasio-Cortez said “this admin is CHOOSING to round up refugees seeking asylum, fighting to not give children toothpaste or soap & making people sleep on dirt floors.” She continued, saying that “They say it’s because of a lack of money. You know what saves money? Not putting masses of people in internment in the first place.”
Setting aside the fact she falsely claimed migrants were being “interned,” note how she put unmeetable conditions on approving Congressional funding for the border crisis. There will be no funding for those in need, she intimated, until the detention centers (which were put in place under the Obama administration) were abolished.
The detention centers aren’t going to go away. There are too many safety and security issues at play to abolish them. She knows this, but she chose to make the administration out as the bad guys because it’s more important for her to virtue signal her way through this issue than to take meaningful action to resolve it.
She wants her followers to believe she cares so much about those who are allegedly being deprived of basic necessities that she is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure they … do not get the funding that they need.
As if the duplicity of this position weren’t obvious enough, just days after tweeting about the alleged “dirt floor” sleeping conditions, Ocasio-Cortez endorsed a campaign started by hundreds of Wayfair employees to halt the company from selling beds to the government for use at the detention centers for children to sleep on.
How can you complain one day about “dirt floor” sleeping conditions, and then turn around and sign on to a campaign that would deprive children of beds?
When another chance came last week for House Democrats to pass a funding bill, Ocasio-Cortez declined to vote in favor of it. She also voted against the Republican Senate’s version of the bill.
“By opposing both bills aren’t you just ultimately depriving these kids of housing facilities that they need?” one journalist asked her.
“The reason I defected is because I needed to send a message,” Ocasio-Cortez responded.
Unfortunately for her, the “message” she’s sent with her duplicitous behavior is that she’s more interested in playing politics with people’s lives than actually trying to help migrants suffering at the border.
This position will win her more social media followers, but it may not play well with voters in her district come primary time.
Stacey Matthews is a veteran blogger who has also written under the pseudonym Sister Toldjah and is a regular contributor to Red State and Legal Insurrection.
