Common political ground was reached Tuesday night as President Trump praised former President Barack Obama on Twitter.
“I agree with President Obama 100%!” Mr. Trump wrote to a C-SPAN video clip of Mr. Obama speaking when he was a U.S. senator from Illinois.
I agree with President Obama 100%! pic.twitter.com/PI3aW1Zh5Q
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 23, 2018
Democrats weren’t likely to appreciate the newfound comity though, as Mr. Trump was largely trolling them and/or pointing out how far the Democratic Party has changed on the issue of immigration.
In the clip, Mr. Obama warns about the threat of illegal immigration to the rule of law and its unfairness to legal immigrants — themes on which Mr. Trump harps, but which many of today’s Democrats dismiss as a racist dog-whistle.
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“We are a generous and welcoming people in the United States but those who enter the country illegally and those who employ them disrespect the rule of law and they are showing disregard for those who are following the law,” Mr. Obama says in the clip.
“We simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, unchecked and circumventing the line pf people who are waiting patiently, diligently and lawfully to become immigrants in this country,” the then-future president continued.
Nor is Mr. Obama alone among recent Democratic presidents in talking a tough game on immigration that would instantly earn a shunning in today’s party.
According to a video clip posted earlier this year on the Republican National Committee website, President Bill Clinton denounced illegal immigration in his 1995 State of the Union address, even using the now-verboten term “illegal aliens.”
“All Americans, not only in the States most heavily affected but in every place in this country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public service they use impose burdens on our taxpayers. That’s why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders more by hiring a record number of new border guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before, by cracking down on illegal hiring, by barring welfare benefits to illegal aliens,” Mr. Clinton said.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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