In a new video designed to bolster President Donald Trump's position during the partial government shutdown, the Republican National Committee used local news footage and Homeland Security department video to suggest Trump's border wall is already being built, and in turn, there is no reason for Democrats to deny further funding for it.
"Over 120 miles of new border wall has been built or will soon be under construction. The media and Democrats are misleading Americans into believing that no new border wall has been constructed. This is a lie," says a narrator from a Homeland Security presentation titled "Walls Work." The statement is flanked by local news broadcast that make it sound like wall construction is underway. But a January New York Times analysis said that "over 120 miles" figure refers to "new and replacement barriers" approved by Congress, but of which only "40 miles of replacement barriers" has been "built or started," while "0 miles" of new barrier has been built as the end of 2018.
Soon after the RNC/Homeland Security video shows a new 30-feet high steel barrier in Calexico, CA, the narrator seems to acknowledge it refers to replacing (and heightening) old barriers and not creating new ones, when he says, "much of this new wall replaces vehicle barriers that are useless in stopping pedestrian traffic."
Noting that hundreds of miles of barriers were built and maintained during the Obama administration, the narrator declares, "The border wall is nothing new and nothing controversial." But of course, the proposed expansion of the wall is new and is hotly controversial, as it is part of shift in policy away from a narrow focus on international terrorists, drug traffickers and human traffickers, towards a policy more generally restrictive of immigration.
The video is designed to make the border wall non-controversial and therefore, shift blame to congressional Democrats for refusing to fund expansion and causing a government shutdown. But with poll after poll showing most voters blame Trump for the shutdown, the video strategy doesn't seem to be working yet.
"Over 120 miles of new border wall has been built or will soon be under construction. The media and Democrats are misleading Americans into believing that no new border wall has been constructed. This is a lie," says a narrator from a Homeland Security presentation titled "Walls Work." The statement is flanked by local news broadcast that make it sound like wall construction is underway. But a January New York Times analysis said that "over 120 miles" figure refers to "new and replacement barriers" approved by Congress, but of which only "40 miles of replacement barriers" has been "built or started," while "0 miles" of new barrier has been built as the end of 2018.
Soon after the RNC/Homeland Security video shows a new 30-feet high steel barrier in Calexico, CA, the narrator seems to acknowledge it refers to replacing (and heightening) old barriers and not creating new ones, when he says, "much of this new wall replaces vehicle barriers that are useless in stopping pedestrian traffic."
Noting that hundreds of miles of barriers were built and maintained during the Obama administration, the narrator declares, "The border wall is nothing new and nothing controversial." But of course, the proposed expansion of the wall is new and is hotly controversial, as it is part of shift in policy away from a narrow focus on international terrorists, drug traffickers and human traffickers, towards a policy more generally restrictive of immigration.
The video is designed to make the border wall non-controversial and therefore, shift blame to congressional Democrats for refusing to fund expansion and causing a government shutdown. But with poll after poll showing most voters blame Trump for the shutdown, the video strategy doesn't seem to be working yet.