Ryan Saavedra at the Daily Wire captured an instructional moment on CNN on Wednesday afternoon. Anchor Brooke Baldwin was interviewing Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis., no relation) on the separation of illegal-immigrant families at the border. The Senator from Wisconsin was on a tear, that the Trump zero-tolerance policy was "something that I think violated all American values. It was an un-American activity." Then the CNN host asked her if she felt that way four years ago under Obama. The senator just tap-danced around the question.
BROOKE BALDWIN: But here's a question for Democrats. You hear the president now on a lot of topics, and this one included, you know, looking back to previous administrations. They should have done more, right? And so as so many people in this country are certainly outraged by the cages, and the thermal blankets, and the facilities housing these kids, you know, they were all there in 2014 under President Obama. And my question to you, Senator Baldwin, is did you speak up against them then?
Senator Baldwin bumbled and dodged: "You know, on the, on this issue that we get into a moment where we’re making progress and then when it, uh, when it stalls, we turn around. I think we all need to continue to be focused on it and press it through. The American people need confidence that we can solve problems. Nobody believes that we have an immigration system that works. It is broken. It needs fixing. And we’ve just got to resolve to do that."
CNN's Baldwin returned to the original question: "But were you worried about it then? Did you raise your voice under the Obama Administration?"
Maybe in personal communication, the senator suggested (not in the press). "You know, in numbers of cases, usually, I remember a constituent who was in detention at the border, arguably very inappropriately," Sen. Baldwin replied. "And, we, you know, we raised our voice in that instance and many others. But that's, we've got to do this now in unison. It's not enough to do it case by case for a Senator or a House member by House member. We’ve got to resolve to fix this issue."
Democrats are not going to sing"in unison" with Donald Trump, any more than CNN would. But whatever diverts the viewer's attention from what the Democrats did or said on immigration in 2014 will do.
