Following Orders On The Border

Donald Trump didn't want Republicans to reach a bipartisan deal on border issues, so Media Research Center writer Jorge Bonilla attacked anyone who pushed for such a deal.

Earlier this year, Republicans were under orders from Donald Trump to block and kill any border bill so he would have something to run on in the fall presidential campaign, and it was up to GOP surrogates like the Media Research Center to support that power play — never mind that a bipartisan bill had been negotiated with Democrats — and to complain that Trump’s cynical placing of his campaign prospects before the good of the country was being called out. The MRC’s point man in talking down any bipartisan deal on the border was Jorge Bonilla, who tried to downplay even the mere existence of a deal. He complained in a Jan. 26 post:

There isn’t an actual border deal in Washington yet but you wouldn’t know that, given the media’s collective caterwauling over former President Donald Trump’s comments on a prospective border deal, which the media then proceeded to frame as a killing of the deal. 

How do we know there is no deal? Because NBC News told us as much as they closed out their coverage of the border kerfuffle:

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ABC News, on the other hand, covered the “deal” as though it were a campaign stand-alone, with no mention of Ukraine until the end of Mary Bruce’s report, and no mention of Israel at all. Bruce, known around these parts as the Biden White House’s chief apple polisher, made it a pure Trump-adverse story focused on process and on the campaign.

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Speaker Mike Johnson has made clear that any deal for Ukraine money MUST include the House-passed H.R. 2, as a minimum border enforcement component. Whatever the Senate and White House are negotiating on, it isn’t H.R. 2. That somehow, goes unmentioned here. Why bother with facts and context when it’s easier to pound out easy “Orange Man Bad” content all day, every day?

Bonilla continued to whine: “The three major networks mischaracterized Trump’s opposition to this imaginary border deal, which is not H.R. 2 and is therefore unlikely to pass the House of Representatives. No substance, just plenty of negotiation with the wind and Orange Man Bad.”

Bonilla complained about other coverage in a Jan. 28 post:

Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, during an interview with U.S. Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX), expressed surprise and pain over the fact that the current border deal being negotiated between the Senate and the White House contains no provision to legalize anyone in the country illegally.

Here’s your periodic reminder that Univision, as currently constituted, remains an immigration-advocacy PAC with a broadcast license: 

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The general purpose of this interview was to suggest that Mexico should not act to restrict northward migrant flows, that there really isn’t such a thing as a migrant crisis, and that it is awful that the border deal does not include a massive grant of amnesty.

In another Jan. 28 post, Bonilla actually defended a Republican senator for trying to negotiate a bipartisan border bill, if only to play the “drive-by media” card by accusing an interviewer of trying to “pull a fast one and manufacture a quote” by him that was critical of Trump for having not read the planned bill.

Bonilla was back to attacking the bill and its supporters (and anyone calling out the cynical Republican opposition) in a Jan. 30 post:

Across the dial the network evening network newscasts, using the same talking points, pumped the Senate-White House border deal, and knocked Republicans opposing the deal. And in so doing, they left out some pretty important details.

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The networks have purposefully left out the fact that House Republicans have passed a bill of their own which they’ve established as a precondition for the appropriation of any monies to Ukraine- H.R. 2. Of course, this is intentional inasmuch as it allows the media to falsely cast House Republicans, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, as a bunch of do-nothings obstructing the Senate compromise. But the record reflects that the bill has been sitting in the Senate for over 8 months now. 

Another thing omitted by the networks is the fact that the president does not need legislation in order to begin to fix the crisis along the border. At a bare minimum, he can just reverse the swath of executive orders he signed upon taking office. To mention this is verboten, of course, because it clearly places the blame for the border disaster squarely on the feet of Joe Biden. To admit he already has the authorities to fix the border is to admit he broke the border on those same authorities. 

Bonilla offered no proof of this other than parroting a right-wing activist on Fox News who was “making the case for existing authorities,” and he made no attempt to fact-check the activist’s claims.

Bonilla whined in a Feb. 1 post that “Like good firefighters, ABC World News Tonight rushed to defend the stalled border bill currently being negotiated between The White House and the Senate. This is but the most recent instance of ABC’s going to the mat for this as of yet unseen legislation.” He huffed that “the House already passed an immigration bill- H.R. 2, which was a precondition for passage of assistance to Ukraine and Israel,” adding: “This report, far from delivering any actual news, served to build a foundation with which to blame Republicans- both for the failure of this bill should it fail to get enacted, and for the broader border disaster.” As if Republicans aren’t trying to engineer the failure of the bill in order to blame Biden for the situation at the border.

Bonilla complained further in a Feb. 4 post, complete with another lazy “drive-by media” reference:

As (unfavorable) reaction to the just-dropped Senate-White House border bill continues to roll in, it is important to note the extent to which the drive-by media are doing the White House’s legwork by pushing this bill. 

Watch as host Kristen Welker absolutely berates Speaker Mike Johnson into accepting the Senate bill on NBC’s Meet the Press:

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In order for the Acela Media’s shilling of the Senate bill to be successful, they must first depict the House as do-nothings on immigration. Johnson denies Welker that ground by addressing that H.R. 2, the House-passed immigration bill, has been “collecting dust” in the Senate. Thus Welker’s hand is forced on “compromise”. H.R. 2 can’t pass in the Senate, she says, so the House must capitulate. 

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Remember this interview as Republicans begin to register their opposition to the border bill, for it is a tonesetter. Passage of the bill qualifies as a “doing something” which might goose Biden’s terrible numbers on immigration ahead of the election. With the Senate bill now public watch for the Acela Media’s calls to “do something” intensify, and to direct that scrutiny straight to the House, which were actually the first to “do something” on immigration.

Bonilla didn’t mention that HR 2 was always going to be a non-starter that got pushed through the House by hardline Republicans without Democratic support a mere couple weeks after being introduced without committee hearings.

Curtis Houck contributed to the narrative in a Feb. 5 post designed to peddle right-wing talking points against the bipartisan bill:

With the senators behind the bipartisan border deal having finally unveiled the text of their bill on Sunday night, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC went all out on their Monday morning news shows to fluff the pillows of dealmakers, giving few to any details beyond cursory allusions to give it maximum appeal and painting GOP opposition as driven by former President Trump.

Our friends at America First Legal have done phenomenal work with numerous threads starting on Sunday night (such as ones here, here, and here) debunking a number of the points made on the networks, including the claim the deal would end “catch and release” of illegal immigrants and that the border would shutter if crossings reach a certain threshold. It also exposed details left out by the networks, including provisions Biden could unilaterally ignore.

Houck failed to disclose that America First Legal is a right-wing group that supports Trump no matter what.

A Feb. 5 post by Bonilla lashed out at one commentator for noting the bill was not bipartisan enough:

During a segment on Univision political affairs show Al Punto, host Jorge Ramos complained that the Senate border bill was too restrictive inasmuch as it didn’t address permanence for those in the country illegally before the ongoing border crisis. No DREAM Act, no DACA, no pathway to citizenship.

Watch as Ramos also laments the Democrats taking positions on the border that he says are ever “closer and closer to these extremist positions of some Republicans”: 

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We’ve said for years that any restriction on the unimpeded flow of immigrants into the United States, no matter how minimal, is just too much. No scheme to legalize millions if illegals is out of bounds.

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As the Senate debates this border bill (which reasonable critics conclude is a permanent codification of the ongoing border disaster), Ramos whines that it isn’t sufficiently open bordersy, wondering aloud why DACA recipients and longtime illegals do not get a pathway to citizenship in this bill. And furthermore, Ramos grouses that the Senate Democrats are acting in a manner not unlike the “extremist” Republicans.

Of course Bonilla would believe that only right-wing anti-immigration activists like him are “reasonable critics.”

A Feb. 6 post by Bonilla cheered: “The network evening newscasts had their collective work cut out for them as they did their very best firefighting, albeit with varying degrees of intensity, in an attempt to save the Senate border deal currently engulfed in flames as details of the legislation went public Sunday night,” complaining that one network newscast criticized Republicans’ desire to link funding to Ukraine to the border bill:

Over to CBS’s report with correspondent Scott MacFarlane, there are no such appeals to authority, and more of a focus on Senator James Lankford. When discussing the Ukraine component of the bill, Senator Tim Kaine was quoted as saying “Ukraine is probably going to lose this war” unless they get the allotted money. 

There was one important element to come out of the CBS report, namely: the opposition of Senator Alex Padilla of California. To this point, we were led to believe that the Democrat front was unified and fed a “Republicans in Disarray” narrative. This has now been proven false. Padilla is relaying the objections of the Professional Latinx and Immigration Industrial Complex who find the bill to be too harsh with asylum regulations. In later interviews, Padilla would cite the lack of a DREAM Act component as an objection, and blast the bill as a “failed Trump-era policy”. Sounds like there’s cracks within the Dem caucus.

And, yes, the water-carrier Bonilla hypocritically accused others of carrying water in a Feb. 7 post:

With the border deal dead, it’s all over but the shouting. And by shouting, we mean ABC News continuing to carry the Biden administration’s water in an update that practically reads like it came out of the White House press shop.

As is often the case at ABC, World News Tonight anchor David Muir’s introduction is very often the tone setter for whatever video comes next. Watch here as Muir seemingly ticks off as many of the White House’s talking points as possible before handing off to Rachel Scott: 

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“Republicans killed the border bill they asked for”, check. “They did Trump’s bidding”, check. The report goes on down the list. In fact, it doesn’t get any better with Rachel Scott. 

And, of course, the fundamental premise of the report is deeply flawed and is outright disinformation. I, for one, know of no Republicans that “demanded” allowing up to a daily average of 4,999 migrants across the border, among many other things. Zero. But The Narrative requires successfully selling this line in order to be able to sell that Trump ultimately killed the bill.

In fact it was the House that first addressed the border, with the passage of H.R. 2. This fact gets muddied in order to put forth a narrative that Speaker Mike Johnson called for this very border deal that couldn’t even bring every Democrat aboard. For the narrative to work, it must negate the existence of H.R. 2, and barring that, render it interchangeable with the dead Senate bill. 

Again, HR 2 was always a non-starter that was passed by hardline Republicans without Democratic support as a sop to other anti-immigration hardliners. Still, he went on to huff: “The report closes with another recitation of the earlier talking points, which confirm my hypothesis about the border bill- that it wasn’t so much a bill to secure the border as it was a bill to secure the electoral prospects of Joe Biden by deflecting the border disaster on to the GOP.” He didn’t mention that GOP opposition to the bill was about securing the electoral prospects of Trump by deflecting the border onto Biden. Which means that Bonilla has his own narrative that he gets paid to sell.

Clay Waters whined that Republicans’ cynical partisan ploy on the border bill was pointed out:

The PBS NewsHour has consistently ignored those facts to keep the scrutiny spotlight 100% upon Trump and congressional Republicans. Anchor Geoff Bennett on January 29 accused Trump of “trying to tank this agreement, urging the House speaker, Mike Johnson, not to support it.”

After a clip showing Trump saying he found it “a very bad bill” that should be killed, Bennett responded.

Geoff Bennett: So, [NPR’s Tamara Keith], the politics of this are so transparent. I mean, it appears that for Donald Trump, the problem of immigration is more politically useful than an immigration solution.

Being cynical about Republicans wanting “the issue” is permitted. Being cynical about the Democrats opening the border and liking massive immigration (for political reasons) is forbidden.

Rather than dispute the accuracy of that observation, Waters played his usual whataboutism: “Whatever Trump’s purely political aims may be, the actual sitting president can make moves to help secure the border. Biden simply prefers to blame Trump and the GOP during an election year, with the eager help of the mainstream media.” As if Trump and Republicans are not all about blaming Biden during an election year, with the eager help of the MRC.

Republican talking-points spouter Bonilla returned for another hypocritical post on Feb. 13 accusing others of spouting talking points:

ABC’s World News Tonight continues to distinguish itself as the main purveyor of Biden talking points among the national network evening newscasts. Tonight’s embarrassment of a report on Ukraine, the border, and reaction to former President Donald Trump’s remarks regarding NATO might as well have been read to us from behind the lectern in the Brady Room.

Watch as the report closes with anchor David Muir and Senior White House Correspondent Mary Brown echoing virtually every Democrat talking point on the failed border deal and the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas:

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But the truth is that not many Republicans wanted what was in the Senate bill to begin with, hence it is the dead Senate bill.  The report closes out with the clip you saw above. Muir and Bruce taking shots at the House Republicans for not passing the Senate bill.

This is dishonestly framed as a rejection of bipartisanship, as opposed to rejection of a deeply flawed immigration bill that would’ve permanently codified the ongoing crisis along our southern border. We never hear “bipartisanship” alluded to in that way when the media talk about Democrats.

Par for the course.

It’s also par for the course that Bonilla still won’t admit that he’s cynically rejecting bipartisanship on the border because Trump told him to.