Deft Dodge

This is a good question and an interesting answer. Well, sort of and sort of.

Harris campaign co-chair Gretchen Whitmer says Gov. Tim Walz giving illegals driver’s licenses, free college, and free health care is sensible policy that’s liked by Americanspic.twitter.com/9bF7iC8t81

— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) August 18, 2024

Kristin Welker asks

Well, let me ask you about her running mate, Tim Walz, and particularly on the issue of immigration. Obviously some of his policies in his state have come into focus. He signed into law initiatives allowing undocumented immigrants to apply for driver's licenses, quality free – for free tuition at public universities, and enroll in the state's free health care program for low income residents. Would you like to see the Harris administration adopt those same policies, Governor?

Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Harris-Walz surrogate, answers

Well, I could tell you, you know, Tim Walz is a pragmatic guy. He's a Midwesterner just like me. And I think some of the wonderful things he's done in Minnesota resonate with, you know, Americans in all states. We know that when you give – when you provide free breakfast and lunch for all the school kids in your state, you're saving parents $850 bucks a year per student just on the grocery bill. So I think what you see in Tim Walz is a pragmatist who wants to make sure that we are a beacon that people come to. You need to come legally. We need to secure our borders. But we also know that the great history of this country is that we were the place that people came to for an opportunity. And that’s got to be the great future of it too

Outsiders "need to come legally" and "we need to secure our borders" is boilerplate; no Democrat publicly admits to being partial to illegal immigration. However, Whitmer did not respond to whether Harris-Walz should adopt the radical proposals.

So Welker now follows-up with largely the same question but with a twist:  "But – but – so do you – would you support the Harris administration, if she were to be elected, adopting those proposals I just laid out for you? For example, driver's licenses for those who are undocumented?"

Whitmer's response is revealing:

I think what we need to do is have a system – an immigration system that works, number one. We need to secure the border, we need to make sure that when people are in this country, that they have access to have some form of ID. That's really important. And I think to the spirit of those things, I think, should be a part of any vision for the – for the country, and our security, and how we bring great people into this country legally.

Democrats, learning to say "we need to secure the border," believe it gives them cover for policies which encourage immigration, legal and illegal. The phrase has lost almost all meaning.  Last year, when the border was even more porous than it is no, the Vice President could say with a (rare) straight face 

 

There is no constitutional requirement that individuals illegally residing in the USA  have "access" to "some form of ID." They are here illegally, and to award them with- well, to award them anything- is noxious.

When it appeared that President Biden might be forced from the race, I speculated that the Democrat's strongest nominee for 2024 would be Gretchen Whitmer, though I myself was ambivalent about her beliefs. Speaking to Welker, the Michigan governor suggested that "I.D." be offered' as if it would be an uncomplicated act of compassion, rather than opening the floodgates to additional benefits. Very likely, that would include such things as free tuition at public colleges, free health care, and a driver's license. 

Governor Whitmer herself appears to support these initiatives and even more obviously would support adoption of those moves if Kamala Harris were elected. Avoiding specifics by referring to "beacon" and  "ID" to mollify the left and "secure border" to mollify centrists is increasingly popular strategy. 

As Whitmer demonstrated, these questions are navigable if proper rhetoric is invoked, coupled with a recognition that most interviewers will ask one question with maybe a follow-up, then drop the entire subject.  Now an experienced politician, Kamala Harris recognizes that this is her path to mitigating the damage her tolerance for surges at the border would do to her candidacy.

Both the Democratic nominee and the Republican nominee have embraced extremist views on immigration. The election must assume the responsibility of fleshing out and exposing these views, and more effectively than was done on Sunday's Meet the Press.

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