In a number of campaign speeches before the 2018 midterm elections, former President Barack Obama called President Donald Trump’s deployment of troops to the border a “political stunt.”
At a campaign rally in Florida in early November, Obama leveled the criticism against Trump while mocking the GOP’s apparent focus on the migrant caravan before the elections.
“They’re telling you the existential threat to America is a bunch of poor refugees 1,000 miles away,” Obama said to the cheering audience. “They’re even taking our brave troops away from their families for a political stunt at the border. And the men and women of our military deserve better than that.”
At multiple rallies in swing states, Obama repeated the line that the hardening of the border is a “political stunt” and that the migrants were not a threat because they were “thousands of miles” away.
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Thousands of migrants in the migrant caravan arrived in Tijuana, Mexico over the weekend and have now created a reported crisis in the region. Hundreds of migrants rushed the U.S. border and some of the migrants threw rocks at border guards on Sunday. The mob was eventually dispersed by tear gas.
On a press phone call, press secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Tyler Q. Houlton was asked by the Daily Caller about the”political stunt” comments made by Obama. Houlton said he did not want to specifically comment on “politics” but harshly rebuked the notion that the situation on the border is a “political stunt.” (RELATED: Obama Administration’s Border Patrol Shot Pepper Balls At Migrants In 2013)
“The fact is — it was not a political stunt. It was never a political stunt. This is a real threat,” Houlton told the Caller.
Mexico announced Monday that they have deported the group of violent migrants that caused a crisis at the border.