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White House brawl over the wall amounts to theater of the absurd

Ruben Navarrette Jr. on

SAN DIEGO -- The media is still buzzing about this week's televised 17-minute confrontation between President Trump and Democratic leaders over a possible shutdown if Congress doesn't approve additional funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Yet, people are talking about the wrong thing.

The narrative is that soon-to-be House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stood up to President Trump.

But, as absurd as it is, the real story is how the standoff was over something that usually unites the parties: border security.

After leaving the White House, Pelosi was asked by reporters why she kept insisting that the discussion be held behind closed doors and not "in the public view." She claimed that it was to protect Trump from further embarrassment because he didn't know what he was talking about. The reporters seemed to buy it.

But the actual reason that Pelosi didn't want to have that discussion out in the open was probably because she didn't want to publicly oppose the border wall and set up Democrats for accusations of being soft on illegal immigration. She also didn't want to expose the fissure between Democrats who oppose the wall and those who would go along with it because they fear a backlash from voters.

 

Meanwhile, Schumer seemed pleased that he goaded Trump into claiming the mantle of border-protector-in-chief. To political observers, it looked like Schumer scored a tactical win by getting Trump on tape threatening a shutdown.

But, in truth, Schumer's stunt was a hollow victory. The refugee caravan changed the equation, turning many Americans against a more lenient approach to border enforcement.

Last month, with the caravan story front and center, a Gallup poll found that the number of Americans who think immigration is the top problem facing the United States jumped to 21 percent from 13 percent the previous month.

Schumer told Trump that "experts say you can do border security without a wall." But, of course, these are the same experts who got us to this point by tolerating illegal immigration.

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