Since Republican primary voters nominated a racist, sexist, xenophobic conspiracy-monger as their party’s standard-bearer, we’ll have to put up with that asshole’s dangerous demagoguery until future President Hillary kicks his ass on November 8. That’s just the way democracy works when the electorate comprises millions of petulant, overgrown toddlers with massive persecution complexes.
But is there no recourse when public sector union officials lie to inflame anti-immigrant sentiment on a candidate’s behalf? That appears to have happened during a meeting today between Trump and several National Border Patrol Council officials.
Art Del Cueto, president of the Tucson chapter of the National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents U.S. Border Patrol agents, told Trump a big fat lie that fits right into Dainty Digits’ pre-butt-kicking “I wuz robbed!” fantasies:
Donald Trump says border patrol agents have been told to allow immigrants into the United States illegally “so they can vote in the election.” Neither Trump nor a border patrol union official supporting him offered evidence Friday to back up the claim.
Newly admitted immigrants are not eligible to vote, a right reserved to citizens.
Trump spoke Friday as he received the endorsement of the 16,500-person National Border Patrol Council on Friday at Trump Tower.
Union official Art Del Cueto says agents have told him they had directives to ignore immigrants’ criminal records, so they can quickly become citizens and gain the right to vote.
Trump called it a huge story. Trump has repeatedly said he fears the election will be rigged. He has made a hardline stance on immigration the centerpiece of his campaign.
Of course, anyone with even a passing familiarity with this country’s immigration processes would immediately recognize the absurdity of Del Cueto’s claim. It typically takes many months or even years to become a U.S. citizen, and only U.S. citizens are eligible to vote.
Del Cueto is therefore a liar, an incompetent or both. His claim caused enough of a stir when Trump ran with it that the union had to trot out a flak to walk it back a bit:
A Border Patrol union spokesman is clarifying a union official’s comments about immigration to Donald Trump.
Shawn Moran said some U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees have claimed they are being asked to ignore criminal histories for people applying for citizenship so they would be eligible to vote in the November election. There has been no evidence to support this.
Moran also said Border Patrol agents are seeing an uptick in the number of people trying to cross the border illegally.
Moran said union vice president Art Del Cueto inadvertently combined the issues when he met Friday with Trump. He wrongly suggested that agents have been told to admit immigrants into the U.S. illegally so they can vote, but provided no evidence to back up that assertion.
Those clarifying remarks are not good enough. These motherfuckers are playing with fire, and they know it.
In a bid to protect his exquisitely fragile ego against the possibility of a loss, Trump is traveling all over the country inciting the millions of bigots who support him by claiming that he can’t lose the election unless there is massive fraud. He has encouraged rural bumpkins to become self-appointed poll watchers in urban areas because what could possibly go wrong. And there’s apparently nothing we can do about that except hand Trump a resounding defeat.
But Del Cueto already has a job, and he is doing it irresponsibly — in a way that has the potential to bring great harm upon the country his organization’s members are hired to protect. If Trump’s deluded followers decide to target people based on these ridiculous lies after Trump loses the election, the Border Patrol union will have blood on its hands.
Border Patrol Union Official Feeds Trump’s Craven Victimization FantasiesPost + Comments (202)