Trump was left speechless when CNN’s Jim Acosta confronted Trump with the fact that it was the president, not Democrats who killed DACA.
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Here is CNN’s edited version of the exchange:
Trump tried to lie his way out of blame for killing DACA. It did not go well. https://t.co/HkywRupeWy pic.twitter.com/PvUT2y8ijz
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) April 2, 2018
This is the full exchange between Trump and Acosta as provided to PoliticusUSA by the White House Press Pool:
Acosta: What about the DACA kids? Should they worry about what’s going to happen to them?
POTUS: The Democrats have really let them down. They really let them down. They had this great opportunity. The Democrats have really let them down. It’s a shame. And now people are taking advantage of DACA, and that’s a shame.
Acosta: Didn’t you kill DACA?
POTUS: [No answer]
It is interesting that CNN would find Trump not answering a question not newsworthy, but when confronted with the fact that he is the one who unilaterally ended the DACA program, Trump didn’t have an answer.
The president could have said that he believes that DACA requires a permanent congressional fix. He could have given any number of policy reasons that would have sounded better than what he did. When confronted with the truth, Donald Trump said nothing. It is Trump who caused the DACA crisis because he wants to use the DREAMERS as leverage to force Democrats to pay for his border wall (that he promised Mexico would be paying for).
If Trump can’t get his wall, the plan has always been to deport the DREAMERS and blame Democrats. As Acosta pointed out, the flaw in this plan is that it is Trump who ended DACA, not the Democrats, so if anyone gets blamed, it will be Trump.
Trump had no answer when he was asked if he killed DACA, but his silence expressed his true feelings on DACA, DREAMERS, and immigration.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
