Trump appears with families of people killed by Illegal Immigrants
Press Conference speaking to an issue most other Republicans avoid.
On Friday, presidential hopeful Donald Trump hosted a press conference in LA featuring the families of victims killed by illegal immigrants.
Before he turned it over to the families, he spent a great deal of time raking the press over the coals for their coverage of his comments about illegal immigrants. It was vintage Trump, but it also led into some pretty powerful content, teed up for a duly-shamed press corps.
Watch (the conference lasts for nearly an hour, and testimony from the families begins at about the 7 minute mark):
At around the 11 minute mark, you’ll hear the story of 13 year-old Ruben, who was gunned down by an illegal immigrant in California in 1990. Hop through the video and take a listen. It’s an intense tribute, but it’s also the kind of story that deserves to be told even within the context of a presidential campaign.
It belongs because it’s legally, politically, and culturally relevant—the ultimate trifecta. Illegal immigration is a divisive issue, but those who advocate for open borders and full amnesty are willfully ignoring the real—and dangerous—effects that those policies have on this country. No story throws that simple truth into fuller relief than that of 32 year old Kate Steinle, who was senselessly gunned down by Francisco Sanchez, a violent criminal and illegal immigrant who should not have been in the country at all.
Kate’s story starts at around the 5 minute mark:
When Trump announced his candidacy last month, I said that I was interested to see how the campaign would introduce Trump the Man (as opposed to Trump the Mogul or Trump the Reality Star) to the American people. If this is their play, it might just be working. Conservative primary voters are currently at each other’s throats over whether or not Trump is worth their attention, worth their vote, or worth nothing more than a passing glance on the way to a Cruz or Rubio rally.
These types of stories are media bait, and Trump is taking full advantage of the opportunity; but he’s also exposing some nasty realities about the effects of illegal immigration.
Perhaps if other Republicans took illegal immigration more seriously, Trump’s numbers would not be rising as they are.
UPDATE by WAJ: Carly Fiorina gave the best answer I’ve heard so far on the issue of Trump and illegal immigration:
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
McConnell and Boehner have only themselves to blame for Trump’s increasing popularity.
Spines and balls seem to be in short supply these days.
Nine people died tragically at the hands of one madman in Charleston and the country mobilizes.
1000 people die tragically at the hands of illegals and they are ignored.
Yeahbut…shaddup, rac-ciss…!!!
In my novel (written in the early 90s) that nobody but my Retriever has read…
I have the main character remarking that you can find a spine in the Congress unless there’s a mouse in the cloak room, and no balls unless there’s a pool table.
Yep, that’s the truth. Speaking of which, is this considered draft dodging: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/deferments-helped-trump-dodge-vietnam
I have spoken with a couple of the people behind the Quilt of Remembrance, which remembers those killed by illegal aliens.
This move of Trump makes me believe he is sincere in his concern about illegal aliens. No other candidates are directing the media to these hurting family members, and their very real evidence of the evil of unchecked illegal aliens.
I watched 53 minutes of the press conference after he met with them, and he stood there while each family member spoke about whatever they wanted to speak about. His involvement got them some real press attention, which was a marvelous thing for him to do, both the country and the families themselves.
Maybe he’s not toying with the country.
People should always speak of that which is important to them. Despite the fact that the majority of interracial crimes are black on white, the press and the administration fixate on the lesser number of white on black crimes. Why should not Trump devote his energy on the real issue of crimes committed by illegals even if those numbers may or may not prove to be of low frequency?
My only criticism of Trump is really more of a suggestion: Recite in his loud fashion (which I love) – in actual numbers – the true, economic costs of illegal immigration to taxpayers and the government. The numbers are staggering – for food stamps, Obamaphones, tax credits etc. being distributed to 30-40 million people. That’s a lot of people, and it also shows that there are really very few illegals that are a net benefit to America. And most importantly, decry the enormous adverse impact of the illegal invasion on our minorities and millions of other working men and women. These specific figures are obtainable by a quick look at the internet, including Ann Coulter’s website. But Donald has to broadcast them in his own, evidently inimitable way, as the major media, including Fox, cover these things up, and outright lie about them. If he is throwing out real figures the mental midget talking heads can’t as easily and dismissively assert that “Trump is wrong” as they incessantly do.
This is all in addition to the invitation for cynicism about the rule of law. Citizens find that foreigners get to violate our laws brazenly, and the response of the authorities is that it only proves that the laws must be wrong, and the foreign lawbreakers must be treated as a protected class. We are supposed to indulge them in the breaking of laws that citizens are required to obey, including traffic laws and those against forgery and identity theft.
We learn that the people we elect to serve our needs and interests hold us in lower regard than foreigners who scorn our laws and our culture, if they think those foreigners can increase the power and wealth of the ruling class.
The rule of law is eroded; confidence in our constitutional system is eroded; any sense of national cohesion is eroded … so that Democrats can make their coercive welfare state even move oppressive and unsustainable, and so that Republicans can serve the ambitions of global corporatism, with multinational corporations dominating over the institutions of citizen self-governance. .
Asheville is a sanctuary city. Last year some friends temporarily moved there from a rural outlying county so they could more easily send their daughter to a Christian High School. Their 22 year old son, who works construction, drives an 18 year old SUV. It seems he is always getting pulled over by the Asheville cops for license/sobriety checks, especially when he has a remodeling job in a more affluent neighborhood. He jokes about it because the family are Adventists and I doubt he’s ever even tasted a beer. The old beaters full of young Mexicans never seem to get pulled over.
Your comment about illegal aliens being favored by politicians because politicians believe they themselves will be benefitted, is an excellent way of putting it, and places it in a more focused light.
“You begrudge others the sun shine, since you would like to assign it to those whom you favor because they favor you.” -C.G. Jung
Whatever his real intentions were initially, Trump has never been more serious. Trump knows he has tapped into something powerful. After watching this press conference, I can really see him becoming President Trump. Stranger things have happened, and he’d be better than the guy serving right now.
…which, interestingly, echoes what Trump said about Obama vs. Bush just a few years ago.
Trump is a shill for Hitliary.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/420996/trump-2008-bush-evil-talk-iran-obama-cannot-do-worse-bush-jim-geraghty
Trump is treating his campaign as a negotiation … he wants the voters support and has found something to offer them in return … namely immigration reform … as in, NOT amnesty and open borders, but sensible American worker friendly immigration …
The rest of the GOP field would do well to join the negotiation …
” …he wants the voters support and has found something to offer them in return …” — and whether or not he’s serious about following through, too many people are so thrilled about this one thing that they’re not even considering where Trump stands on other issues, or where he has sent campaign contributions in the past, or even what he thought about border control before now.
Trump is taking advantage of people’s frustration about this problem, and too many people are overlooking the fact that he is not actually a principled conservative. If he gets other candidates to take the border problem seriously, he will serve a good purpose. Otherwise, he’s just a spoiler.
If we become Mexico, we’ve lost the country anyway. So whether Trump is truly conservative or not, I don’t care. We have to stop the invasion. There are 50 million hispanics here. Reagan gave amnesty to 3.5 million. With that speed of increase, we can never assimilate them. Never.
No, but we can become Mexico. That is the Democrat goal and it has been tremendously successful till Trump came along and brought the obvious to everyone’s attention. What happens next is anyone’s guess. My guess is spanish lessons would be a good investment.
Which is why we HAVE to reverse the direction of the migration.
We HAVE to make the U.S. inhospitable to the invaders, not because we are mean and they are whatever color they are, but because we can’t employ our own citizens under the current Obamic Decline.
It’s more than employment for Americans. It’s NOT changing to a culture where cops are gunned down by cartels, innocents are kidnapped over drug deals, and child rape is considered normal.
Sometimes, we just don’t understand how good it is here in America.
Trump has given campaign money to people who want to keep the invasion going. When did he become tough on borders, and why?
Look at how dorsaighost’s phrasing: “he wants the voters support and has found something to offer them in return … name immigration reform.” That looks like a political strategy more than firm principle — and that’s the point to which I was responding.
People are so excited to hear Trump talking tough on the border problem now that they don’t care about his record on that or any other issue. It’s not an awful lot different from the Obamabots swooning over Obama’s speeches and not caring about his record.
The border is a big issue, but it’s not the only one. There’s also freedom of speech, for example, and Trump has recently taken the position that we should be careful not to offend Muslims — perhaps because Arab money is important to his personal fortune.
People aren’t thinking with their minds. This is emotion-driven support, and that’s dangerous.
Trump is basically blackmailing conservative voters. “Vote for me or I’ll run 3rd party and screw the pooch. If I win, I’m gonna screw you anyway because I’m going to throw the race to Hillary, my old friend of many, many years. I’ll have every Hispanic in the country hating the GOP”. Of course, he doesn’t say it in that manner, but he’s thrown it out there. Why would he again be talking 3rd party NOW? He’s never said a thing about immigration before now. All of a sudden he’s the great voice of the anti-illegal interests?
And I think he was lying when he said he hadn’t seen the Clintons in years. He LOOKED like he was lying, and it just isn’t believable. He donated to Hillary in ’08 and has donated to their foundation. Maybe he “unfriended” them on Facebook.
This dog ain’t gonna hunt – not on my land, anyway.
Ben Carson agrees.
http://www.breitbart.com/video/2015/07/11/carson-illegal-immigrants-should-become-guest-workers-if-they-register-pay-taxes-and-back-taxes/
A guest worker program has been used by this country before, to cope with illegal immigration. A guest worker program is not a citizenship track, nor does it have to be an absolute bar to citizenship. We can preserve the option to convert to citizenship, provided the person gets in line with the rest of the legal applicants.
A guest worker program could have a substantial, positive impact on the countries that have traditionally used our country as a “safety valve” when their economies slump. People leave, they come here, they find work and then send money home. That money is a substantial fraction of, for example, Mexico’s economy. We should allow these people to be guest workers, to make those payments, and to return home for visits frequently, in order to facilitate the maintenance of their family ties and eventual move back home.
The low wages of an illegal immigrant here can translate into economic power in another place. We should be conscious of this fact and make use of it.
People who come here to work learn how we get things done. They also learn our impatience with stupidity, inefficiency, and bribery. If we merely allow them to work here and return themselves, they will reform their home countries.
Yes, Mr. Trump is (the only one) highlighting an issue of vital importance to the American people. However, once again, this article is highlighting the ignorance of the RINO.
“Conservative primary voters are currently at each other’s throats over whether or not Trump is worth their attention, worth their vote, or worth nothing more than a passing glance on the way to a Cruz or Rubio rally.”
Umm, no, sweetie. Conservative voters are just da*n grateful that SOMEONE has the huevos to speak truthfully about the costs-human and economic-of the illegal occupation of our country by the Third World hordes. Period. The people at whose throats we would like to tear would most likely be the RINOs. Most of us are just really, really tired of being lied to by people who are, allegedly, on our side.
The Professionals in the Press Corps(e) sit around their tables, roped in by the Democrat Party, and wonder what ever kind of benefit there can be for the Republican Party to have so MANY popular candidates running for the R nomination.
Well, this is a fantastic example!
I just can’t bring myself to cheer Mr. Trump’s candidacy… but I can sure cheer on his campaign. It’s a powerful thing when only one candidate understands how to address a serious and ignored issue, and does it in a way that it brings that issue to the National Stage.
It’s a REALLY powerful thing, when the People realize that the other Republican candidates haven’t… and even MORE so, that the Democrats are eagerly, passionately on the wrong side of the issue.
Immigration is just one.. but it’s his turn. Now, which of the other candidates will be able to take ANTHER serious issue, and make a campaign out of it?
Let’s not all see the same hands…
That was a powerful press conference. Whatever you think of Trump, he deserves to be commended for taking the time to listen to those victims and allow them the opportunity to share their stories.
We seem to live in a post-rational world, where emotions and empathy are what matter, not what is good policy for the country. The media and the political class have decided the illegal invaders are the most sympathetic. Remember when Jeb Bush said illegally invading the country is an act of love?
Trump seems to recognize that emotions are what matter, so he’s trying to flip the script and make the crime victims of illegal invaders more sympathetic than the illegals. So to counter Trump’s move, I suspect the traitorous Congressman Luis Gutierrez (I consider him a traitor because taxpayers elect him and pay his salary to represent THEIR interests and he brags about how he wants to advance the interests of the citizens of foreign countries who have illegally invaded), or LaRaza or Geraldo or Jeb Bush will now pump up the sympathy for the invaders to counter the victims that Trump found. Maybe they’ll highlight one or two illegals who were military heroes in Iraq, or high school valedictorians, or graduated from some fancy elite school like Harvard, or somehow show that the illegals are contributors to society who obey the law (despite breaking the law to invade) and deserve our sympathy.
Trump’s got his work cut out for him. He’s up against a tacit conspiracy between both political parties and the media who intend to make illegals the most deserving of our sympathy.
#AmericanLivesMatter
#PinchYourselfYou’reDreaming
“Trump’s got his work cut out for him. He’s up against a tacit conspiracy between both political parties and the media who intend to make illegals the most deserving of our sympathy.”
That shouldn’t be too difficult. These crimes are being committed by the illegals daily. All Trump has to do is make these felony acts known to the public. That quilt will get bigger and bigger and will serve to suffocate the lying media.
Watch Ms. Fiorina’s response again.
Masterful.
First, she turns away George “Skippy” Stephanopoulos’ obvious, Hillary-instructed question. That’s the first good thing a politician does; answer the question she wants to answer and not the one posed.
Second, she makes clear that it’s “common sense” (meaning Skippy doesn’t and won’t ever get it) to secure the border and control immigration. That should be the correct mainstream Republican response. We’re not going to argue about it because it’s common sense and compelling. It’s just right; of course we’re going to do those things. If the Country Club types and the Chamber of Commerce doesn’t like it, too bad. “Common sense” is also a great phrase to use on the campaign trail — like apple pie and motherhood you can’t be against common sense. So it’s smart of her to phrase it this way.
And third, she takes a whack at the Country Club Republicans in charge of Congress, accusing them of playing footsie with the Democrats. They have and she’s right.
She does all that with a calm and focus that shows that she’s in charge of herself.
I like this woman. She’s smart. And she fights.
Yes, exactly! Her performance in that video clip should be a lesson for other candidates on how to deal with MSM questions, their attacks on Republicans!
My initial, knee-jerk reaction to Carly Fiorina’s potential candidacy (as it was then) was quite negative, as anyone who cared to search through my comments here would see.
The more I’ve seen of her in action, the more impressed I’ve become with her. I totally “misunderestimated” her, but for once I’m happy my initial judgment is being proven wrong.
She’s going to be a serious force to be reckoned with. That the Democrats haven’t set after her with all guns blazing yet leads me to believe that they’re still in the “misunderestimating” phase themselves. That’s good — she’ll be canny enough use that to her advantage.
Fiorina’s master-class ability to turn the table on the Leftist nitwits in the media should be required watching for current and future conservative (and not just presidential) candidates.
Donald Trump has raised many issues that I agree with, especially his points on illegal immigration, border security, national security and our country’s foreign policy, oh, and our national psyche.
Yet, behind all this is my personal concern about Trump’s goals. Trump historically has been all for Trump. His approach to condemning private property in Atlantic City to benefit his casino’s profits are but one such example. My personal goal is to evaluate Trump as a person, not simply as a stump speaker.
Maybe his campaign to date is demonstrating his real objectives, maybe not. Yet, of the current bunch, he, Carly, Perry, and Walker are my personal favorites and want to see how they do along this long path to the 2016 nomination. Because America is Beautiful and deserves, for a change, a president who wishes to keep our nation faithful to its Constitution.
Donald is plain spoken and that spooks everyone.
Hear that low hum in the distance? That’s the electronics of the Democrat opposition researchers building the file on Trump should his star rise and remain in the sky. Trump talks a lot at every election cycle, but he’s never been elected to anything. Businessmen don’t guard their skeletons as well as politicians must. Imagine all the thieves and criminals he’s dealt with over the decades. The Dems are.
Also, please recall the 2012 cycle when the GOP also had a large field going into the primaries. It seemed like everyone had a turn at the top of the polls, including a businessman – Herman Cain. It’s almost “Herman who?” just a few yhears later.
Trump garners attention now not because of what he’s saying – virtually all of us hear at LI and other blogs have been saying the same thing. It’s because Trump is the only one saying it as he does (loudly, abrasively, Trumply). This earns no glory for Trump – just embarrassment for the GOP, which won’t say shit if it might put off an independent voter somewhere. Trump has not stolen the stage form the GOP – they left the stage empty.
Trump will return to earth in a couple months.
Pessimist!
Bravo Henry Bravo.
The GOPpers have an empty stage……