NY Dem House Candidate: ‘Biden Was Too Slow’ on Border

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” New York U.S. House candidate John Avlon (D) responded to a question on what President Joe Biden did on the border for the first three-and-a-half years of his term by stating that “Biden was too slow to take action on the border.”

While discussing who is a threat to American institutions, National Review Editor Rich Lowry said that the Democratic Party is fully supportive of packing the Supreme Court and eliminating the filibuster and Biden has been a “President of the United States who refused to enforce the laws at the border.” Avlon countered that those claims are untrue.

Lowry further argued that Biden “legislated and funded, on his own, a massive student loan program that was clearly illegal.” And said to Avlon, “You say you’re not on a team, but you won’t criticize your own side.”

Avlon responded, “By the way, we absolutely need to pass the bipartisan border security bill and — that Donald Trump pulled the plug on. I would vote for it on day one, because we need strong borders.”

Lowry then asked, “Okay, so what happened for the first three-and-a-half years? Where was he the first three-and-a-half years?”

Avlon responded, “I think Biden was too slow to take action on the border. But when we had a bipartisan border security bill, which Trump tore apart because he didn’t want bipartisanship to get credit. I think the big difference is, we know bipartisanship’s the solution, and too many folks on the far right do whatever Donald Trump says, and they think bipartisanship’s the problem.”

Lowry then asked, “When Biden said he didn’t have the authority to do anything on his own on the border that was correct?”

While Lowry was asking the question, host Bill Maher cut in to try to move to another subject, and Avlon said, over Maher’s interruption, “Pass the law.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett