In Barack Obama’s first term as president, Republicans issued a challenge to the Democratic White House: Increasing border security would open the door to a bipartisan reform package. Obama accepted the offer at face value and significantly increased border security.
When GOP lawmakers hedged on holding up their side of the bargain — a familiar dynamic, to be sure — the then-president traveled to El Paso in May 2011 for a speech on immigration policy. Obama explained at the time, “We have gone above and beyond what was requested by the very Republicans who said they supported broader reform as long as we got serious about enforcement. All the stuff they asked for, we’ve done.”
Obama added, however, that GOP officials were complaining anyway. “Maybe they’ll need a moat,” he said to laughter. “Maybe they want alligators in the moat. They’ll never be satisfied.”
The joke was less funny eight years later when The New York Times reported that Donald Trump, in the second year of his term, often spoke with White House aides about his vision for the U.S./Mexico border. It included “a water-filled trench, stocked with snakes or alligators.”
With this in mind, during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing this week, Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia of California reminded his colleagues of the former president’s gator-related plan.
Garcia: Let’s review the majority’s border ideas… Donald Trump actually has said that he wants to build alligator moats along the border. That's one of his incredible ideas… pic.twitter.com/6516fhTody
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 30, 2024
Newsweek took note of what happened after the hearing.
Mocking Garcia’s intervention, [Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado], a MAGA Republican and longtime Trump ally, told the far-right, pro-Trump news network One America News on Wednesday that she would co-sponsor legislation like the one recapped by the Democratic representative on Tuesday.
“Sign me up, I will co-sponsor that legislation, I’m happy to,” Boebert said, chuckling. Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia apparently liked Garcia’s description of Trump’s plan, too. There’s been no word from Obama about GOP members inadvertently validating his joke, 13 years later. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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