October 17, 2024

Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.

As Trump surges, Democrats panic as Harris can’t say how many illegal aliens her administration released or whether Biden was fit

By Robert Romano

Vice President Kamala Harris on Oct. 16 sat down with Fox News’ Brett Baier for a brief interview that posed many ultimately unanswered questions, including about the administration of President Joe Biden and Harris in allowing millions of illegal immigrants to remain in America, some of whom went on to commit heinous murders and rapes, and about Biden’s fitness to remain in office as he was being to deposed as the Democratic Party nominee to Harris’ benefit.

When asked by Baier “how many illegal immigrants would you estimate your Administration has released into the country over the last three and a half years?” Harris gave a standard “I'm glad you raised the issue” non-answer, proceeding instead to say she and Biden had offered legislation, which Baier noted would have granted citizenship to those who had been released into America.

The answer was of course since Feb. 2021, there have been 8.3 million encounters by the U.S. Border Patrol on the southwest border, the most in recorded U.S. history, of which, most were allowed to remain. For example, in Fiscal Year 2024, of the 2.75 million southwest border encounters, 1.4 million were Title 8 apprehensions, of which only about 309,000 were subjected to expedited removal, about 109,000 were detained pending proceedings and another 139,000 voluntarily returned, with almost all of the rest given a voluntary “notice to appear” for later immigration proceedings. The rest were just caught and released. In other words, about 2.2 million stayed.

But that wasn’t necessary. As Baier noted, Biden and Harris could have simply kept Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy in place (an executive agreement between the U.S. and Mexico), continued with the Title 42 removals (Biden ended those in May 2023) and to keep the national emergency Trump declared on the southern border in place. There were things under laws Congress already passed that Trump had done that could have been used to have stem the mass migration taking place, but instead were rescinded, allowing millions to continue crossing the border.

According to the latest data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released on Sept. 25 via Congressional oversight by U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), of those who were allowed to remain in the U.S., 13,376 were convicted murderers, 16,120 were convicted of sexual assault, 64,579 were convicted of assault, 43,546 were convicted of burglary, larceny or robbery, 13,876were  convicted of weapons offenses, 2,606 were convicted of kidnapping and 2,218 were convicted of commercialized sexual offenses — all before they ever came to America and were released into the country by the federal government.

According to the House Homeland Security Committee release on Sept. 27, “they had previously been encountered by CBP, turned over to ICE, had their criminal history documented, and then were released into the United States.” 151,851 out of 156,521, or 97 percent — were not currently detained by ICE, with only 4,670 are detention and subject to removal. Of the convicted murderers, the numbers are even worse: only 277 were in detention, or just 2.2 percent.

Responding to Harris’ statements that former President Donald Trump was “unstable,” Baier asked Harris, “you told many interviewers that Joe Biden was on his game that ran around circles on his staff. When did you first notice that President Biden's mental faculties appeared diminished?” which led to Biden being replaced, adding, “you met with him at least once a week for 3 and 1/2 years. You didn't have any concerns?”

Again, Harris couldn’t or wouldn’t answer that there was any trouble with Biden’s fitness to serve, first suggesting “Joe Biden I have watched in from the Oval Office to the situation room and he has the judgment and the experiment and experience to do exactly what he has… done in making very important decisions on behalf of the American people. And then when asked again if she had ever had any concerns, she dodged and instead pivoted to Trump, “I think the American people have a concern about Donald Trump…”

Which wasn’t the question. It was about the circumstances that catapulted Harris to be the beneficiary of Biden’s fall, and to ascertain if Harris had ever had any concern about Biden’s fitness to serve.

Similar questions about Trump’s own nomination could simply be answered by noting he had swept 49 out of 50 states against former South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley. That is, he earned it. Whereas Biden was removed from being the nominee precisely because he couldn’t tie two sentences together when confronted by Trump in the perilous June 27 debate — and Harris refuses to acknowledge the circumstances.

The interview comes as Trump has been surging in both national and battleground state polls, showing increasing strength as Nov. 5 rapidly approaches. It certainly explains Democrats and Harris’ decision to put Harris out there in combative interviews such as the Fox one to counter criticisms and to press for details about the policies she oversaw, including border security and immigration, and the reasons for her being the nominee.

That fact is, Harris is the incumbent, who wields the incumbency advantage but also bears the burdens of the incumbent when it comes to the present administration’s shortcomings, which Harris blames on Trump when Trump hasn’t been in power since Jan. 20, 2021.

At one point in the interview, Harris unironically remarked, “You are responsible for what happened in your Administration.” We know.

Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.

To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2024/10/as-trump-surges-democrats-panic-as-harris-cant-say-how-many-illegal-aliens-her-administration-released-or-whether-biden-was-fit/

2022 Violent Crime Rate Dramatically Revised Upward

Oct. 16, 2024, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement on the 2022 violent crime rate reported by the Justice Department was revised upward by 6.6 percentage points from 2.1 percent drop to a 4.5 percent increase:

"The violent crime reports by the Department of Justice are incomplete and invalid due to changes in the reporting system that initially fail to include many large municipalities, resulting in the 2022 violent crime rate being revised upward by 6.6 percent — from a 2.1 percent drop to a 4.5 percent increase — and making the 2023 violent crime report meaningless due to a lack of complete data.

"It is absurd that changes in the reporting requirements by the Justice Department for municipalities have rendered annual data unreliable and incomplete and is now being exploited by national, state and local administrations who get to say pay no attention to what you see on the streets, crime is low, trust us. The revisions to the 2022 violent crime data prove that the crime reporting system is failing almost as much as the criminal justice systems in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Baltimore. It is unbelievable that with modern database technology that it takes two years for the federal government to get accurate crime data reporting."

To view online: https://getliberty.org/2024/10/2022-violent-crime-rate-dramatically-revised-upward/