Posted on 01/09/2018 6:09:32 PM PST by Kaslin
President Donald Trump has been besieged by allegations, rather ludicrous ones, that he’s somehow unstable and mentally unfit to be president. Michael Wolff’s new book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White, has been a public relations nightmare, despite multiple media figures and officials calling out its inaccuracies. Well, what happened today dispelled all of that. Cortney wrote it up earlier today. Trump held a bipartisan meeting with Democrats and Republicans on the subject of immigration. There was agreement that something had to be done for the DACA recipients, everyone was for border security, and there might be something on chain migration (via NYT):
President Trump on Tuesday appeared to endorse a sweeping immigration deal that would eventually grant millions of undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship, saying he would be willing to “take the heat” politically for an approach that many of his hard-line supporters have long viewed as unacceptable.
The president made the remarks during an extended meeting with congressional Republicans and Democrats who are weighing a shorter-term agreement that would extend legal status for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. Mr. Trump has said such a deal must be accompanied by new money for a border wall and measures to limit immigrants from bringing family members into the country in the future, conditions he repeated during the meeting on Tuesday.
[…]
Seated with members of both parties during a meeting at the White House to discuss a narrower immigration agreement, the president said there was room for a compromise on DACA.
“We have something in common,” Mr. Trump said of Democrats. "We’d like to see this get done.”
But the president said he would insist on strict new immigration limits as part of any such measure, calling it a “bill of love.” Laying out conditions that many Democrats view as nonstarters, Mr. Trump said the legislation must fortify the nation’s borders; end “chain migration,” a term used by immigration critics to refer to immigrants’ ability to bring members of their extended family to the United States after gaining their own legal status; and cancel the diversity visa lottery program.
Watch President Trump and congressional leaders debate immigration policy pic.twitter.com/QSnhJmhfnF— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) January 9, 2018
We’ll see. Either way it was great spin for the president, who Democrats have tried to cast as mentally insane; he’s not. The extended media access was hailed as an unprecedented window into deal making by the media, though some had much more measured responses.
That was great @realDonaldTrump. You should do it again in the future.— Sam Stein (@samstein) January 9, 2018
I can never remember seeing a president convene a discussion of an issue with this many congressional voices and this many viewpoints being discussed publicly. Pretty remarkable day at the White House.— Rick Klein (@rickklein) January 9, 2018
Trump smart for opening immigration discussion to press. Public gets to see deal making POTUS at his best.— Steve Peoples (@sppeoples) January 9, 2018
Even CNN praised the extended pool spray, with Dana Bash saying that this meeting probably wouldn’t have gone any different if the cameras weren’t there, citing two Republicans at the meeting who told her they had no idea the cameras would stick around that long. She added that this is what people who voted for Trump hoped his presidency would look like, The Donald “in command.”
Shannon Pettypiece of Bloomberg added that given the allegations in the book, Trump needed to meet with Democrats and an image improvement and this meeting satisfied those two goals.
Bash’s CNN colleague John King said what we saw today was a very engaged president, one who was putting the pressure on both parties regarding their talking points on this issue, while saying he’s open to comprehensive immigration reform. It’s something that this town hasn’t seen in a while.
The issue has reached a level of criticality, as a government shutdown looms in the absence of a deal on immigration.
CNN’s Dana Bash On POTUS’s Bipartisan Meeting With Congress: He Was “In Command”
Nope.
Steny Hoyer looked like he swallowed a jar full of sour pickles, especially when the POTUS said the wall was not up for negotiation.
It was a very good look for Trump....
and the dems know it!
Well, the Dems said they wanted transparency.
Is this transparent enough???
Watched it.....AWESOME.....GENIUS!....last time the little dem pukes were a no show.
Trump again outfoxes, outflanks them.
This time...they had to swallow broken glass and force themselves to sit at a table with name tags in place...MSM present throughout.
Durbin and Hoyer were doing their best to sulk in order to demonstrate to their base just exactly how pissed off they were.
They contributed nothing.
Trumps’ content was remarkable.
I heard they were all caught by surprise. Lol
Same old lies. Same old head fake.
Trump outsmarted everyone. :D
Made Michael "Trump is Unfit for Office" Wolff looked like the idiot he is. Too bad he's going to get rich off his Fake Book sales.
Gonads-Kicking Genious At Work Alert!
“Heard Trump say that he would insist on the word “merit” being a part of any immigration reform including DACA... That could really limit even Dreamer legalization!”
Yes it could. Bigly.
First off, DACA is a subset of dreamers (800K out of several million). DACA is a very well defined, discrete list of individuals, by name. Dreamers is a broad, weakly defined category. Millions of additional people could potentially attempt to enter in the future, through whatever window is defined as open for “Dreamers”.
If we move to a merit based immigration system, some of the DACA folks would be excellent candidates (healthy young adults, fluent in English with good education/skills, who pay taxes have no criminal record and use no welfare). They would be reasonable recruits to legalize, or flat out give green cards anyway.
At least half of the DACA folks are NOT good candidates under a merit based system. We need to bar those with criminal records, have gang associations (including tattoos) or who are functionally illiterate. We would be wise to further bar those with weak English language skills or medical issues.
Also, if you have merit criteria and no more chain migration, then the DACA folks who are accepted do not bring other family members with them, who don’t meet the standards (old, sick, illiterate, unskilled, welfare recipients, or those with criminal histories - such as the parents who violated the law to bring the DACA folks in).
Democrats prefer to work in the dark. Remember Jonathan Gruber?
I read your remarks to my household! Uproarious laughing all around...Special Episode of the Apprentice!
Too funny and so perfect.
You are so right!!!! He was totally in command and totally in his comfort zone.
Too bad the small problem of the Constitution prevents him from issuing his signature line!
Folks - This what your POTUSVSG* looks like!!!
*President’ Trump’s “forever nickname” - courtesy of Scott Adams.
That was 100% obvious. They are not to be trusted.
I think Trump knows exactly what the Dems mean by a “clean” immigration bill. The question is, do they know what he means?
Yes...I caught it
What about e-verify....?...was that mentioned.
In other news ....dims discombobulated, shellacked and electroplated on live TV.
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