Rep. Tim Ryan laid into President Trump Monday for his handling of the border crisis amid reports last week that migrant detention facilities were overcrowded, disease-riddled and left without sanitary supplies.
Originally panned by Democrats as a crisis invented by Republicans early this year, CNN asked Mr. Ryan whether that will look badly on Democrats. He responded it will a bigger issue for Mr. Trump.
“The president gets elected to solve problems, that why he gets hired, or she gets hired to solve these problems, he hasn’t solved them, he’s made matters worse,” the Ohio Democrat said.
Then Tim Ryan got heated, criticizing the president for cutting State Department aid to Central American countries and allowing kids to be detained covered in snot and in dirty diapers
“Fix the damn thing, like, what are we talking about here? You’re the president of the United States, go down there and you’re already spending billions of dollars, fix it. You’re a master business person, master problem solver, fix it,” he said.
“People are dying, people are getting hurt and the American people are tired of him getting photo ops with dictators when he should be home fixing the problems here in the United States,” Mr. Ryan added, referring to his historic visit with Kim Jong Un and being the first U.S. president to enter North Korea.
Mr. Ryan also accused Mr. Trump of not solving the crisis so he can appear as “tough” and a source of “drama” on news networks.
“The problem is … in Central American, the president wants this drama day in and day out on CNN and other outlets so he can pretend that he’s really strong and tough, well this is a sign of weakness.”
“Go to Central America, help stabilize those countries where people are migrating from: Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador. There are people running from there because gangs are running the country. Help get the gangs out. Help stabilize the country for a few million dollars. We can solve this problem and prevent this crisis at our border, and what’s the president’s response? Cut the State Department funding, the very funding we would need to solve this problem,” he said.
Mr. Ryan is one of 20 Democrats running to challenge Mr. Trump in the 2020 election.
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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