Obama spinmaster David Axelrod recently went on Fusion’s America with Jorge Ramos and discussed immigration policy, among other things. In the process of rendering his accustomed Obama apologia, this time on immigration, Axelrod made quite the interesting revelation.
I can’t quite tell whether Jorge Ramos’ segment
lead-in (“You know, I’m really interested in immigration…”) is unintentional comedy or genius-level trolling of conservative media, but it does lead into a salient question that Axelrod is uniquely qualified to answer, which is: who in the White House killed immigration reform despite then candidate Obama’s 100-day promise?
Axelrod, of course, does not directly answer the question (“The politics is what stopped it…”). However, Axelrod’s response is fascinating for other reasons.
Hidden between the distractors (“we had meetings in 2009”, “eleven Republicans”) is, first, an admission that comprehensive immigration reform took a back seat to the stimulus and Obamacare.
“The leadership of Congress was leery about moving (on immigration) when we were also doing several other things to try and fix the economy, to pass healthcare reform…wanted to defer…”
In plain English, “la promesa” (the promise) died at the hands of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid as the President watched in silence. In the process of spinning away from that inconvenient truth, Axelrod threw additional chaff by lamenting that there were simply no Republican partners to join the President on immigration reform, and that “without them, there was no passing this bill.”
First of all, I don’t recall a lack of Republican votes impeding the passage of Obamacare. In fact, it passed without a single Republican vote and after much legislative trickery and chicanery. It is up to my pro-amnesty friends to wonder why the Democrats neglected to do the same on their behalf.
Had Jorge Ramos been interested in doing some of that famous “afflict the comfortable” advocacy journalism he seems so proud of, then perhaps he could have refuted Axelrod’s revised history with something other than a meek “I see”, given that there were several pro-amnesty Senate Republicans ready to roll (see Graham, Lindsey) in addition to the filibuster-proof Democratic majority, not to mention a House that Nancy Pelosi ran with an iron fist.
Ramos chose instead to absolve Obama, legitimize his executive half-measures (“…since he couldn’t pass immigration reform…”), and lay a foundation for Axelrod to both smear Judge Hanen and impugn the legitimacy of the suit filed against the Obama administration.
When the spin clears, David Axelrod admitted that comprehensive immigration reform was neither a priority within the 111th Congress nor the Obama White House (and the political capital of its 70-percent-plus-approval ratings). When faced with this clear admission, Jorge Ramos chose to advance the network’s partisan narrative rather than follow his own journalistic code.
