Media Research Center writer Jorge Bonilla had been carrying water for Republicans in lashing out against any bipartisan border deal — Donald Trump needs an issue to run on in November, after all — and attacking anyone who believed in bipartisan politics. A Feb. 5 post by Bonilla lashed out at one commentator for noting the bill was not bipartisan enough:
During a segment on Univision political affairs show Al Punto, host Jorge Ramos complained that the Senate border bill was too restrictive inasmuch as it didn’t address permanence for those in the country illegally before the ongoing border crisis. No DREAM Act, no DACA, no pathway to citizenship.
Watch as Ramos also laments the Democrats taking positions on the border that he says are ever “closer and closer to these extremist positions of some Republicans”:
[…]We’ve said for years that any restriction on the unimpeded flow of immigrants into the United States, no matter how minimal, is just too much. No scheme to legalize millions if illegals is out of bounds.
[…]As the Senate debates this border bill (which reasonable critics conclude is a permanent codification of the ongoing border disaster), Ramos whines that it isn’t sufficiently open bordersy, wondering aloud why DACA recipients and longtime illegals do not get a pathway to citizenship in this bill. And furthermore, Ramos grouses that the Senate Democrats are acting in a manner not unlike the “extremist” Republicans.
Of course Bonilla would believe that only right-wing anti-immigration activists like him are “reasonable critics.”
A Feb. 6 post by Bonilla cheered: “The network evening newscasts had their collective work cut out for them as they did their very best firefighting, albeit with varying degrees of intensity, in an attempt to save the Senate border deal currently engulfed in flames as details of the legislation went public Sunday night,” complaining that one network newscast criticized Republicans’ desire to link funding to Ukraine to the border bill:
Over to CBS’s report with correspondent Scott MacFarlane, there are no such appeals to authority, and more of a focus on Senator James Lankford. When discussing the Ukraine component of the bill, Senator Tim Kaine was quoted as saying “Ukraine is probably going to lose this war” unless they get the allotted money.
There was one important element to come out of the CBS report, namely: the opposition of Senator Alex Padilla of California. To this point, we were led to believe that the Democrat front was unified and fed a “Republicans in Disarray” narrative. This has now been proven false. Padilla is relaying the objections of the Professional Latinx and Immigration Industrial Complex who find the bill to be too harsh with asylum regulations. In later interviews, Padilla would cite the lack of a DREAM Act component as an objection, and blast the bill as a “failed Trump-era policy”. Sounds like there’s cracks within the Dem caucus.
And, yes, the water-carrier Bonilla hypocritically accused others of carrying water in a Feb. 7 post:
With the border deal dead, it’s all over but the shouting. And by shouting, we mean ABC News continuing to carry the Biden administration’s water in an update that practically reads like it came out of the White House press shop.
As is often the case at ABC, World News Tonight anchor David Muir’s introduction is very often the tone setter for whatever video comes next. Watch here as Muir seemingly ticks off as many of the White House’s talking points as possible before handing off to Rachel Scott:
[…]“Republicans killed the border bill they asked for”, check. “They did Trump’s bidding”, check. The report goes on down the list. In fact, it doesn’t get any better with Rachel Scott.
And, of course, the fundamental premise of the report is deeply flawed and is outright disinformation. I, for one, know of no Republicans that “demanded” allowing up to a daily average of 4,999 migrants across the border, among many other things. Zero. But The Narrative requires successfully selling this line in order to be able to sell that Trump ultimately killed the bill.
In fact it was the House that first addressed the border, with the passage of H.R. 2. This fact gets muddied in order to put forth a narrative that Speaker Mike Johnson called for this very border deal that couldn’t even bring every Democrat aboard. For the narrative to work, it must negate the existence of H.R. 2, and barring that, render it interchangeable with the dead Senate bill.
As we’ve pointed out, HR 2 was always a non-starter that was passed by hardline Republicans without Democratic support as a sop to other anti-immigration hardliners. Still, he went on to huff: “The report closes with another recitation of the earlier talking points, which confirm my hypothesis about the border bill- that it wasn’t so much a bill to secure the border as it was a bill to secure the electoral prospects of Joe Biden by deflecting the border disaster on to the GOP.” He didn’t mention that GOP opposition to the bill was about securing the electoral prospects of Trump by deflecting the border onto Biden. Which means that Bonilla has his own narrative that he gets paid to sell.
Clay Waters whined that Republicans’ cynical partisan ploy on the border bill was pointed out:
The PBS NewsHour has consistently ignored those facts to keep the scrutiny spotlight 100% upon Trump and congressional Republicans. Anchor Geoff Bennett on January 29 accused Trump of “trying to tank this agreement, urging the House speaker, Mike Johnson, not to support it.”
After a clip showing Trump saying he found it “a very bad bill” that should be killed, Bennett responded.
Geoff Bennett: So, [NPR’s Tamara Keith], the politics of this are so transparent. I mean, it appears that for Donald Trump, the problem of immigration is more politically useful than an immigration solution.
Being cynical about Republicans wanting “the issue” is permitted. Being cynical about the Democrats opening the border and liking massive immigration (for political reasons) is forbidden.
Rather than dispute the accuracy of that observation, Waters played his usual whataboutism: “Whatever Trump’s purely political aims may be, the actual sitting president can make moves to help secure the border. Biden simply prefers to blame Trump and the GOP during an election year, with the eager help of the mainstream media.” As if Trump and Republicans are not all about blaming Biden during an election year, with the eager help of the MRC.
Republican talking-points spouter Bonilla returned for another hypocritical post on Feb. 13 accusing others of spouting talking points:
ABC’s World News Tonight continues to distinguish itself as the main purveyor of Biden talking points among the national network evening newscasts. Tonight’s embarrassment of a report on Ukraine, the border, and reaction to former President Donald Trump’s remarks regarding NATO might as well have been read to us from behind the lectern in the Brady Room.
Watch as the report closes with anchor David Muir and Senior White House Correspondent Mary Brown echoing virtually every Democrat talking point on the failed border deal and the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas:
[…]But the truth is that not many Republicans wanted what was in the Senate bill to begin with, hence it is the dead Senate bill. The report closes out with the clip you saw above. Muir and Bruce taking shots at the House Republicans for not passing the Senate bill.
This is dishonestly framed as a rejection of bipartisanship, as opposed to rejection of a deeply flawed immigration bill that would’ve permanently codified the ongoing crisis along our southern border. We never hear “bipartisanship” alluded to in that way when the media talk about Democrats.
Par for the course.
It’s also par for the course that Bonilla still won’t admit that he’s cynically rejecting bipartisanship on the border because Trump told him to.