Trump Speech Preview: What Could He Say, What Should He Ask
So President Trump will be giving a nationally televised address tonight to address what the White House is calling the “Humanitarian and National Security crisis” on our southern border.
I am pleased to inform you that I will Address the Nation on the Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border. Tuesday night at 9:00 P.M. Eastern.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2019
The speech comes amid the high-stakes partial government shutdown over Trump’s insistence on border security and the Democrats vow not to hand over one red cent for a wall.
Despite the drama, the four broadcast networks actually debated whether to carry the 9 p.m. Eastern time speech. Seems they didn’t carry a 2014 immigration address by President Obama, so they were worried carrying Trump might tick off Democrats. Then again, mainstream media refusing to cover a critical address by the President will provide further evidence to Republicans of the networks’ anti-Trump bias. Can’t have Trump making a convincing case that contradicts all their coverage.
In the end, all decided to carry the address for one simple reason. Not because immigration’s an issue crucial to America and the nations’ future. But because Trump TV does boffo ratings. (Why do you think CNN and MSNBC are clamoring for an impeachment? The hearings will be the biggest thing in daytime since the heyday of Luke and Laura.) Democratic analyst Jonathan Harris agreed, telling Hill.TV the networks are “ratings hungry.” “They know that Trump is a clown and a circus, and the circus always does well.”
That’s precisely the deep analysis you can expect tonight after the speech. The Democrats will get a chance to respond, but the media’s post-debate reaction is already scripted. You can make a drinking game out of the pundits’ puffery. One sip every time Trump is called a “liar.” One gulp every time someone uses the phrase “doesn’t represent our values” or “it’s not who we are as nation.” One chug every time Trump is called a “racist.” Have Elizabeth Warren bring the brewskies.
Just remember to toast in all earnestness those lost because of the failures of our immigration policies.
What The President is Going to Say
So what’s President Trump going to say? He can share story after story, stat after stat, the drugs seized, the criminals captured … and recaptured … and recaptured. He can link the generation-long bottoming out of American wages to massive influx of illegal immigrants in the wake of the failed Reagan Amnesty.
He can speak of the 22 million people now estimated to be in the country illegally. That’s more than the legal populations of the top seven most populated cities in the United States: New York, L.A., Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix and San Antonio combined. Enough to fill Levi Stadium, site of last night’s Alabama-Clemson game, nearly 300 times.
He could name the six known terrorists NBC says were nabbed at the border the last 6 months. “Only” six says NBC, citing Customs and Border Patrol Data it was given. Took only two terrorists to shoot up San Bernardino. Six doesn’t count the 4,000 known or suspected terrorists DHS Secretary Kirsjen Neilsen and the administration says were nabbed in 2018. Six doesn’t count known terrorists who slipped through the open spots along the border. It doesn’t count those with terrorist intent whom we don’t know about. It doesn’t count MS-13 gang members with a bloodthirsty itch to terrorize American neighborhoods. “Only” six.
He could kick the behinds of both parties for perpetually kicking this can down the road, refusing for political and ideological reasons to leave our border a sieve.
He could offer Stream senior editor John Zmirak’s solution that all who are speaking out leave their doors unlocked and open tonight.
Want to pull your hair out? Read the chapters in our book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration about how we got into this mess. Then read some of the late, great Congresswoman Barbara Jordan’s wise approaches and recommendations when President Clinton had her head the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform.
In fact, Trump could quote Jordan. “Credibility in immigration policy can be summed up in one sentence: Those who should get in, get in; those who should be kept out, are kept out; and those who should not be here will be required to leave.”
In the face of those declaring securing the border is not an America value, which you will hear a hundred times in the next 24 hours, again Jordan:
We decry hostility and discrimination towards immigrants as antithetical to the traditions and interests of the country. At the same time, we disagree with those who would label efforts to control immigration as being inherently anti-immigrant. Rather, it is both a right and a responsibility of a democratic society to manage immigration so that it serves the national interest.
Trump could do his whole speech in the words of Barbara Jordan.
Or perhaps he could stay silent as the screen scrolled the names of those killed by people in the nation illegally, or those killed by the drugs smuggled through that border.
What I’d Like to See Him Ask
I would like to see the President publicly pose questions to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. I suggest he even use his “inside voice.”
- What exactly do you mean by a wall being “immoral”? How is it immoral? If existing barriers are immoral, are you calling for them to be torn down?
- At what point does a “fence” or “technology” that Democrats are fine with become “immoral”?
- Chuck Schumer claims he doesn’t want to see a barrier replace The Statue of Liberty as a symbol of the United States. Would you accept taking a few million of the $5.6 billion to build replicas of Lady Liberty for every one of the big wide gates and ports of entry we have?
- Why don’t we have a right to know who’s coming into the country and do whatever is necessary to ensure that right?
- What does a border mean to you? Is the existence of a border your real issue?
- Do you really believe in American sovereignty?
- 80% of the women and girls raped making the journey from Central America, encouraged by your slack border policies? Why do you perpetuate a system that results in their brutalization?
- Drug overdoses killed 72,000 Americans in 2017. That’s 14,000 more than the Vietnam War. As Commander-in-Chief, don’t I have a responsibility to do whatever I can to stop the flow of ammo?
- Who gains by allowing the flow of drugs to continue? We know the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah has teamed with Latin American drug gangs to bring billions of dollars worth of drugs into the U.S.. Isn’t it my swore duty to protect Americans from those who not only shout “death to America” but are bringing death to Americans?
- When will you put the security of Americans first?
The President of the United States will address the nation at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
Al Perrotta is the Managing Editor of The Stream, and co-author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration.
