During Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Out Front,” Illinois Governor JB Pritzker (D) responded to a question about why President Joe Biden waited months to take action at the border even though Governor Pritzker himself has said the situation is unsustainable, arguing that former President Donald Trump, a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, “did nothing for the U.S. relationship with Latin America, and that’s really what started the cause of the border problems.”
host Erin Burnett asked.[B]”In October, you said the situation at the border was intolerable, and you said illegal immigrants were being sent to your state. It took eight months for President Biden to issue an executive order after you said the situation was intolerable. Obviously, the Vice President was the designated person in the Biden administration to be in charge of the border. There’s no way this wouldn’t be a huge burden on her.”
“Let’s not forget that Joe Biden, who is known for bringing bipartisanship to Washington, actually introduced a border security bill. And what happened? It was Donald Trump who ruined it, even though Republicans and Democrats wanted it,” Pritzker told Republicans. [back] “If you stop it, don’t vote for it. He’s ruined the opportunity to fix the problem, and by the way, he did when he was president too. He didn’t do anything. And we need comprehensive immigration reform. Both Kamala Harris and Joe Biden are for it. I’m for it. That’s something Democrats support, Republicans don’t support.”
Barnett then asked, “As I said to the New York Attorney General yesterday, I would love to weigh in with you on that. Clearly Republicans bear responsibility for the failure of the bill, that’s true. But it still took months for President Biden to issue an executive order. Do you wish Vice President Harris had done anything differently? There’s a difference between saying the bill didn’t pass and simply allowing an intolerable situation to continue, as this administration has done.”
Pritzker responded: “We could have done this quickly. There’s no question about it. But it takes a lot. It doesn’t just take an executive order. We have to negotiate with the Mexican leadership. They were in the middle of an election. We have to negotiate with the leaders of South and Central America. We have to get this under control. Remember all those people lining up at the border trying to get into the United States under Donald Trump? He didn’t do anything for the relationship between the United States and Latin America. That’s how the border problems started. So I’m very excited that Kamala Harris is going to lead us going forward. There’s a lot left to accomplish in this country. Republicans are getting in the way. Donald Trump is trying to undo all the progress we’ve made. Think about how much we’ve saved our economy as Democrats across the country. Donald Trump wants to change that, and he wants to go back to a world where we ship jobs overseas, quite frankly. That’s what Donald Trump stands for.”
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