Former President Bill Clinton (D) made some head-turning comments regarding Democrat border policies while stumping for Vice President Kamala Harris (D). While speaking about the murder of Georgia college student Laken Riley – which was allegedly committed by illegal immigrant Jose Ibarra, former President Clinton took a shot at former President Donald Trump (R) for killing the border bill from earlier this year.
According to CNN, the proposal would’ve allowed an influx of illegal immigrants into the country through the southern border but provided $20.23 billion for “operational needs and capabilities” and resources for the newly proposed border policies.
This clip has been edited to exclude what former President Clinton said before he made these remarks.
Here’s the full clip with context where Clinton notes that Trump killed an immigration bill that was led by senior Republicans in the US Senate. https://t.co/hVmY9FIDSM pic.twitter.com/lS8TG7hlRe
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) October 14, 2024
While some of the more popular clips on social media include only the latter half of the video above, with the full context, President Clinton’s remarks still are not a good look for VP Harris.
“And on the immigration thing, [Kamala’s] the only candidate who has actually endorsed a bill that would hold down immigration in any given year to a certain point and then make sure we gave people a decent place to live, we didn’t divide people from their children, and we did total vetting before people got in,” President Clinton began.
He continued, attempting to connect the death of Laken Riley to the failed border bill from earlier this year. The border bill was negotiated in late January and early February. Laken Riley was found deceased on February 22.
“Now Trump killed the bill. The bill was being written by senior Republicans in the Senate, and he killed the bill. Why? You got a case in Georgia not very long ago. They made an ad about a young woman who’d been killed by an immigrant. Yeah, well, if they'd all been properly vetted, that probably wouldn't have happened. But if they’re all properly vetted, that doesn't happen, and America is not having enough babies to keep our populations up. So, we need immigrants that have been vetted to do work,” concluded Clinton.
His comments omit that Jose Ibarra, the alleged murderer, came into the country illegally in 2022 during the Biden-Harris administration and before the introduction of the border deal.
This does not bode well for the Harris campaign, with about three weeks until election day.
