As my colleague Laura Clawson noted earlier today, the differences between the two presidential town hall events Thursday night couldn’t have been more stark. Joe Biden dove into plenty of policy but maybe above all reminded us that a president is supposed to, frankly, give a shit about us. It was just as evident after the town hall as it was during, when he stayed after broadcast was over to keep answering audience questions.
Then there was Donald Trump. If you skipped it like me, I’m sure you’re also just so fucking sick of this man that the 18 days left until Election Day can’t come any faster. He did, however, spew a lie about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that I just can’t ignore. Not just because it’s an issue important to me, but because it’s such an outlandish lie that it just can’t get ignored.
During Thursday night’s debate, the impeached president actually got a very good question on DACA from an audience member, who noted the strong bipartisan support for protecting young undocumented immigrants, and pressed him on whether he would keep pursuing an end to the popular program should he remain in office.
Trump started off by repeating his usual lie, which is that he’s “going to take care of DACA.” This isn’t true because he’s been trying to end it since September 2017. (Unless he means some mob version of “taking care” of something; then maybe it’s not a total lie.) But anyway, Trump continued on with his nonsense until pressed by moderator Savannah Guthrie, who noted that Trump has in fact decimated the program. That’s when Trump jumped in with his whopper.
”There are—under your administration—no new applicants are allowed,” Gunthrie said, “and in fact, the DACA recipients now have to renew every year, as opposed to every two years. So, in fact, the DACA program has been curtailed by your administration.”
”Well, what happened was because of the pandemic,” Trump replied. “Much changed on the immigration front.” The pandemic. He’s saying the novel coronavirus pandemic, you know, the one with the “19” in the name because that’s when it was identified by scientists, is what made him end the DACA program beginning in September 2017?
Perhaps he’s also blaming his 100-plus days and counting defiance of the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding the DACA program on the pandemic, too. As Guthrie noted, the administration is refusing to accept new applications but is so far not outright attempting to again end the program before the election. Even they know that continuing to so publicly attack this incredibly popular program is a losing issue for them. But if he remains in office, he’ll try again and without fear of the repercussions—for him.
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