Now that the election is over and informing Americans about the case for building a border wall can no longer benefit Republicans, CNN's New Day aired a report on Thursday that was unusually balanced for CNN in which highlighted an area where a border wall is desperately needed to stop drug smugglers.
Correspondent Ed Lavandera spoke with a rancher and pro-wall activist, Jim Chilton, who has used hidden cameras many times to record what appear to bands of drug smugglers in camouflage hiking across the border in a remote area that gets less attention from Border Patrol.
Chilton was outnumbered. The CNN correspondent began the piece by hearing from one of the anti-wall activists who argued that it is a waste of time, and then related that construction teams are trying to build as much wall as possible before Joe Biden becomes President. Picking up on the fact that billions of dollars of contracts have already been paid for, a border patrol agent argued that halting wall construction would waste a lot of tax money.
Lavandera then showed clips of another environmental activist railing against the construction;
KATE SCOTT, ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST: Take the wall down in the areas that we need it to be taken down, right away.
LAVANDERA: We hiked to this border wall gate stretching the San Pedro river bed in Arizona with environmentalist Kate Scott. She says this wall is a deadly threat to wildlife that migrates through this area.
SCOTT: I can tell you, we wake up, we cry, we steady ourselves, and we get to work because it's been so painful for me to witness this monstrosity.
The CNN correspondent finally got to a segment dealing with Chilton's activism in favor of building a wall in the area where he lives, Lavandera noting: "But the wall also isn't being built fast enough for Jim Chilton."
He soon added:
His ranch fans out across 50,000 acres in Arizona. Chilton is lobbying for a wall on this spot. He says it's a low-priority area because it's so remote, but he does have the ear of the border wall's biggest cheerleader. President Trump put Chilton in the spotlight during a rally last year.
After a clip of Chilton recalling that he had offered to let the federal government use his ranch as a construction base for free, the report then showed some of the rancher's footage of a significant number of possible drug smugglers sneaking across the border:
LAVANDERA: Chilton's ranch sits between a 25-mile gap in existing border wall, and he says it's prime terrain for drug smugglers. He's deployed hidden cameras to capture what he says are more than 1,000 images of camouflaged smugglers marching across his ranch.
CHILTON: My ranch is a no man's land. It's actually controlled by the cartel.
Nearing the end of the report, Lavandera swung back to showing the views of an anti-wall activist, Laiken Jordahl, who resigned from the National Park Service after Trump became President.
Over the past few years, CNN's New Day notoriously misinformed viewers about the issue of border security and tried to deflect criticism of illegal immigration.
This episode of CNN's New Day was sponsored in part by Febreze. Their contact information is linked.
Transcript follows:
CNN
New Day
December 24, 2020
6:52 a.m. Eastern
ED LAVANDERA: Halting construction isn't enough for some anti-wall activists.
KATE SCOTT, ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST: Take the wall down in the areas that we need it to be taken down, right away.
LAVANDERA: We hiked to this border wall gate stretching the San Pedro river bed in Arizona with environmentalist Kate Scott. She says this wall is a deadly threat to wildlife that migrates through this area.
SCOTT: I can tell you, we wake up, we cry, we steady ourselves, and we get to work because it's been so painful for me to witness this monstrosity.
LAVANDERA: But the wall also isn't being built fast enough for Jim Chilton.
JIM CHILTON, ARIZONA RANCHER: The international boundary.
LAVANDERA: All right? This isn't the kind of wall you want?
CHILTON: No.
LAVANDERA: His ranch fans out across 50,000 acres in Arizona. Chilton is lobbying for a wall on this spot. He says it's a low-priority area because it's so remote, but he does have the ear of the border wall's biggest cheerleader. President Trump put Chilton in the spotlight during a rally last year.
CHILTON (speaking at a Donald Trump event): Mr. President, we need a wall.
CHILTON (with Lavandera): I offered the federal government 10 acres of land over here, my private property, to have a forward operation base. I offered it for $1 a year. And I even told them, "I'll give you the $1 if you can't find one."
LAVANDERA: You made the border patrol, the federal government, an offer that you thought they couldn't refuse.
CHILTON: They said they would study it. That was four years ago.
LAVANDERA: Chilton's ranch sits between a 25-mile gap in existing border wall, and he says it's prime terrain for drug smugglers. He's deployed hidden cameras to capture what he says are more than 1,000 images of camouflaged smugglers marching across his ranch.
CHILTON: My ranch is a no man's land. It's actually controlled by the cartel.
LAVANDERA: Laiken Jordahl has spent the year sounding the alarm about border wall construction in Arizona.
LAIKEN JORDAHL: This wall is purely political theater. It does nothing to actually stop people or drugs from crossing the border.
LAVANDERA: Jordahl drove us around Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument -- a breathtaking national park in the heart of Sonoran Desert. The tranquility of the landscape is broken by the sound of crews building more than 60 miles of, part of it through this national park. He calls himself a "disaster tour guide."
JORDAHL: They're pulling out all the stops to rush this project through.
LAVANDERA: Jordahl used to work as a U.S. national park ranger at the Organ Park National Monument in Arizona. He says he resigned after President Trump took office.
JORDAHL; It's really an insult to those of us who live down here. We're seeing our communities ripped apart. We're seeing ecosystems being destroyed. We don't care what you call it. This thing is a disaster.
