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As noted just last week, Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn is among the most recent elected Republicans to spread this trope, almost lamenting a more than 200% rise in fentanyl seizures by U.S. border officials. The lie has also come from Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, as well as Steve Scalise and conspiracy theory proponent Elise Stefanik.
During a July press conference, Scalise claimed that a so-called border crisis is “so bad that it's created a fentanyl crisis that is killing tens of thousands of people.” What he didn’t answer is how massive drug seizures by U.S. border officials have equaled an “open border.” That fact is, it’s largely U.S. citizens who have been caught smuggling large quantities of drugs, and it’s happening at ports of entry, not in between.
But Republicans don’t care, and would rather turn this genuine crisis of drug overdoses into anti-immigrant fodder. They’re doing it with success, with the polling showing that a good chunk of respondents believe it’s “at least somewhat true that migrants bringing fentanyl and other illegal drugs over the southern border are responsible for the increase in drug overdoses and deaths in the U.S.”
When it comes to the “invasion” lie, “Republicans (76%) believe this more so than Democrats (40%) and independents (46%),” the polling said. “However, Republicans who cite Fox News or other conservative news sources as their main news source are even more likely to believe this than Republicans who get their news elsewhere (91% vs. 71% of those who have a different primary news source).”
The Fox propaganda network has gone as far as to falsely claim “that Biden is intentionally allowing fentanyl to cross the border to kill Trump voters,” Media Matters reported in May.
“If you wanted to kill a bunch of MAGA voters in the middle of the heartland, how better than to target them and their kids with this deadly fentanyl,” Republican Ohio Senate nominee J.D. Vance said in a right-wing interview, echoing a claim from Tucker Carlson. “It does look intentional. It’s like Joe Biden wants to punish the people who didn’t vote for him. And opening up the floodgates to the border is one way to do it.” That, dear readers, is horrifying bullshit. But it’s what passes for GOP policy these days.
”The poll suggests that the reach of some false and misleading claims may be growing,” NPR reported. “Four years ago, NPR asked if ‘immigrants are more likely to commit crimes or be incarcerated than the U.S.-born population.’ Back then, more than 60% of respondents correctly identified that statement as false. But when asked again this year, only 49% got it right.”
Alarming, especially when some of the conservative respondents who believe immigrants commit more crimes also know the former president they support is a criminal, and they don’t care.
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