Let's examine two claims made by Gov. Tim Walz during his debate loss to Sen. JD Vance on Tuesday. We could rebut and contest even more assertions and statements, of course, as Walz's cascade of dishonesty has caused even NBC News to ask if the Democratic Vice Presidential nominee has "a problem with the truth." But for the purposes of this post, let's stick to the substance issues of the border crisis and abortion. During an exchange on immigration, Walz denied that Kamala Harris' administration has allowed millions of illegal migrants into the country, and claimed that unlawful crossings are lower than when Trump left office. Here is what he said:
CBS: Governor, I do want to let you respond to the allegation that the Vice President is letting in migrants...
Walz: Well, of course, that's not true. And again, you have the facts. I guess we agreed not to fact check. I'll check it. That, look, crossings are down compared to when Donald Trump left office. But it's, again, blaming and not trying to find the solution.
Indeed, let's "check it." Since Kamala Harris took office, becoming Border Czar shortly thereafter (CBS 'fact-checked' Vance over this, but CBS' own journalists referred to her as the Border Czar until it became a problematic political liability for their party), approximately ten million illegal crossings have been recorded. That represents an unprecedented explosion of unlawful crossings. We've never seen a border crisis like this before:
Walz - “Crossings are down compared to when Donald Trump left office.”
— Chad Wolf (@ChadFWolf) October 2, 2024
Hmmm. CBP data shows the complete opposite ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/Jf2A3mFsNx
Link to data: https://t.co/v33MluRCkb
— Karol Markowicz (@karol) October 2, 2024
Here are the stats on releases, plus known got-aways:
It’s actually well over 5 million released on her watch, plus another 2 million known gotaways. https://t.co/fpFwuXXAuc pic.twitter.com/ynDOArXblQ
— John Cooper (@thejcoop) October 2, 2024
The narrower point Walz was probably trying to make is also deeply misleading:
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Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) and Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) sparred about immigration, climate change, abortion and other issues.
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 2, 2024
Washington Post reporters are sharing insights and fact-checking the debate in real time.
Follow our live coverage: https://t.co/ufFGhiHWlb pic.twitter.com/D5tso1orfh
Why is this not an honest representation of what's happening, for several reasons, with the second one being key. In fact, it's the very point Vance was making in correcting a distorted 'fact check' by CBS News when they cut his mic off:
(1) Ten million illegal crossings over the last 3.5+ years.
(2) In order to produce the sorts of misleading stats below, they’ve funneled tens of thousands of illegal immigrants into the CBP One app as their means of entry, quasi-legalizing, fast-tracking many entries, removing them from the official stats.
(3) Texas has stepped up enforcement dramatically, despite opposition and lawsuits from the Harris administration.
The Biden-Harris administration started pushing illegal immigrants into the country through ports of entry and through the CBP One app (directly flying many of them into the country) in order to cut down on the category of "encounters." Tens of thousands of migrants are entering under this scheme every month (not counting the tens of thousands of got-aways, who are also still arriving). The Harris administration has shifted the way these migrants are counted and categorized, in order to manipulate the official statistics. As as Vance was explaining pre-silencing, flooding under-vetted illegal immigrants through the CBP One app and calling their status 'legal' is a mendacious shell game, which also insults the millions of people who've adhered to the actual legal process of migrating to the United States. This is how the game is working:
[The monthly 'encounters' statistics] do not include roughly 60,900 migrants encountered at ports of entry in June, largely via the controversial CBP One app, the overwhelming majority of which are released into the US. They also do not include the up to 30,000 migrants per month paroled into the US via the Biden admin's controversial CHNV mass parole program that allows migrants to fly directly into the US. The Biden admin is currently admitting roughly 70,000-80,000 migrants into the US every single month through the use of both these programs - which allow migrants to come into the US lawfully, typically for 2 year humanitarian parole grants - rather than cross the southern border illegally.
"Lawfully" is a term of art here, and it's not the actual legal process, as Vance laid out. On abortion, the GOP nominee called out Walz's barbaric position, which has resulted in inhumane changes to Minnesota law:
Vance: As I read the Minnesota law that you signed into law, the statute that you signed into law, it says that a doctor who presides over an abortion, where the baby survives, the doctor is under no obligation to provide lifesaving care to a baby who survives a botched late term abortion. That is, I think, whether it's not pro-choice or pro-abortion, that is fundamentally barbaric. And that's why I use that word, Norah, is because some of what we've seen, do you want to force catholic hospitals to perform abortions against their will? Because Kamala Harris has supported suing catholic nuns to violate their freedom of conscience? We can be a big and diverse country where we respect people's freedom of conscience. And make the country more pro-baby and pro-family. But please.
CBS: Yes, Governor, please respond.
Walz: Look, this is one where there's always something there. This is a very simple proposition. These are women's decisions to make about their healthcare decisions and the physicians who know best when they need to do this, trying to distort the way a law is written, to try and make a point. That's not it at all.
Vance: What was I wrong about? Governor, please tell me. What was I wrong about?
Walz: That is not the way the law is written. Look, I've given.
Vance: But how?
Walz: I've given this advice on a lot of things that getting involved, getting, that's been misread. And it was fact checked at the last debate...
Vance: I asked a specific question, Governor. And you gave me a slogan as a response.
Walz: It's not the case. It's not true. That's not what the law says. So they fact checked it with President Trump.
Walz also denied ("that's not what the bill says") that the law he signed permits abortions in the ninth month of pregnancy. He was lying about all of it. Minnesota's horrifying new abortion law does permit unfettered elective abortion all the way through birth:
Tim Walz said the abortion bill he signed into law doesn’t allow abortion at 9 months—that’s not true. pic.twitter.com/4PIiYAxKox
— Vanessa (@Nessakins_) October 2, 2024
As for the infanticide portion of the discussion, here are the facts:
Minnesota Department of Health documents show that eight infants were born alive during abortion procedures between 2019 and 2022, and, in 2023, Walz signed legislation that repealed most of a statute designed to protect infants born alive after an abortion attempt...Minnesota state law explicitly protected children born alive during abortion procedures since at least 1976 when the state legislature adopted Section 145.423...In 2015, the Minnesota state legislature passed additional legislation, signed into law by Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton, intended to expand the state’s protections for born-alive infants...On May 22, 2023, the Minnesota state legislature passed an omnibus bill—signed into law the next day by Walz—that repealed all six subdivisions added by the 2015 Born Alive Infants Protection Act as well as two of the three subdivisions established in the original 1976 statute...
[It] changed its language requiring medical personnel to “preserve the life and health of the born alive infant” to instead require medical personnel to “care for the infant who is born alive.” The bill also repealed many of Minnesota’s abortion reporting requirements, including information about born-alive infants. Earlier in 2023, Walz signed legislation enshrining the right to abortion into Minnesota law...[and] established that “Every individual who becomes pregnant has a fundamental right to … obtain an abortion,” and did not include any restrictions or prohibitions. Minnesota currently has no statutory limits on abortion at any stage of pregnancy.
This is an appalling, extreme legal regime that permits unlimited abortion through birth, and repealed explicit requirements to preserve the life of babies who are born alive during failed late-term abortions. State records show this has happened on multiple occasions, which is horrific, so the law also eliminated the requirement to record such events. It's sickening. Walz also signed a repeal of laws against coercing women into abortions, which is a far cry from "pro-choice." It's affirmatively and ghoulishly "pro-abortion," an accurate and applicable label at which Walz bristled on the debate stage. Walz's message to anyone who may oppose elective late-term abortions, who is against repealing protections for born-alive infants, or who thinks coerced abortion is evil (ie the vast majority of Americans) is "mind your own damn business."
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