Episode 308: Illegal Immigration Trends / Political Gaffes / A New News Source

When Trump started his term, illegal immigration started to trend down. With Joe Biden the presumptive President-elect, what do you think that trend is doing now?

Politicians make verbal gaffes; it happens all the time. But watch how the media coverage changes depending on the party of the politician.

I’ve found a news source that lets you see how various other sources cover a story based on their bias.

Mentioned links:

Episode 175: Enforce The Laws We Have

Illegal border crossings are surging as migrants anticipate Biden changes, DHS says

Media Ignore ‘Devoutly Religious’ Biden’s Embarrassing Bible Gaffe After Freaking Out About Trump’s ‘Two Corinthians’ Remark

Ground News

Show transcript

Back in April of 2017, just a few months after Donald Trump had been inaugurated, I noted that the number of illegal immigrants coming into the country had dropped like a rock. My explanation for it was that, since Trump ran heavily on enforcing our border, fewer people were willing to take the chance that they might get actually prosecuted rather than just get released into the country. Threatening to actually enforce our existing border laws caused, I believe, a drop in those trying to cross it illegally

And today, this:

Border Patrol agents are already seeing a Biden surge in illegal immigration at the southwest border, officials said Thursday, with the numbers surging 21% over the last month alone.

Acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan said worsening economic conditions south of the border are largely responsible for the uptick, but he also blamed “perceived and or anticipated shifts in policies” here in the U.S.

Indeed, if you are having your own economic troubles, and the guy coming into the Presidency here is all about open borders, you’re more willing to take the chance and get forgiveness rather than permission.

And all this while COVID-19 is still making the rounds. Oh yeah, this is just what we need.

All politicians make verbal gaffes from time to time. For some of them, the time between those times is somewhat shorter than others. Here, for example, is candidate Donald Trump, calling a book of the Bible by the wrong name.

[Trump audio, Two Corinthians]

Now for the vast majority of Christians, the name of the book is Second Corinthians. I say for the “vast majority” because, in some places and based on age, some actually say Two Corinthians, but that’s a rare exception, and Trump doesn’t fit into any of those categories, so it’s a gaffe.

And of course Trump got raked over the coals in the press. There’s a link in the show notes to a bunch of examples, some as recently as last year, over 3 years post-gaffe. The media would not let this go.

I don’t think that Trump ever claimed to be particularly devout in his religion, but the media certainly like to remind us that Joe *** Biden is a devout Catholic. He’d never mispronounce something like…well…

[Biden audio, Palmist]

Yes, another gaffe, from this gaffe-o-matic guy. Anyway, the issue here for me is not about mispronunciations of Biblical proportions, it’s how the media will cover these things. Here we have two fairly similar situations. But I searched for “palmist” on Politico, CNN, and NPR, all of whom reported on the Trump version of the gaffe, and found absolutely nothing about Biden; surprise, surprise. Or not.

Will Biden get a honeymoon from the press? Yes,