On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Source,” Biden Campaign Co-Chair Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) responded to a question on why President Joe Biden hasn’t taken the executive action on the border that he said he was considering over a month ago by stating that 2024 Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump “was capitalizing on” the death of Ruby Garcia in Michigan and “under the Trump administration, he actually called me, the Governor of Michigan, to ask that we send the National Guard to help with surveillance on the southern border, and we helped him out because he couldn’t get it done.”
Host Kaitlan Collins asked, “The reason Trump was in your state today was — in addition to being asked about abortion, he was there to talk about immigration, which has obviously been an issue that he has used to his advantage politically ever since the 2016 campaign. President Biden told you and other governors over a month ago, I believe it was February 23, that he was considering new executive action on the border. Do you understand why he hasn’t taken any of that executive action that he was considering?”
Whitmer responded, “Well, I’ll tell you, the former President was in Grand Rapids today, and he was capitalizing on a horrible tragedy that happened here. There is a family that is grieving the loss of Ruby Garcia, and she was a real person with a real story and it is a horrible story that happened. All of that being said, he came in to the perpetrate the continued storyline that [he] had done everything to keep us safe, which is baloney. We know that, under the Trump administration, he actually called me, the Governor of Michigan, to ask that we send the National Guard to help with surveillance on the southern border, and we helped him out because he couldn’t get it done. He’s also the reason that the negotiation in Washington, D.C. didn’t come to fruition, he torpedoed a deal that would have had the strongest border security in decades in this country that President Biden put on the table. He told Republicans to walk away and they did. So, I really — I cannot abide when someone comes in and just tries to score political points off of someone else’s pain and perpetuates a problem instead of actually trying to solve it.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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