Opinion articles provide independent perspectives on key community issues, separate from our newsroom reporting.
A blatant lie by Vice President JD Vance, House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans was used to paint Democrats as wanting to get hundreds of billions of dollars to provide free health care for undocumented residents in exchange for their vote to avert a federal government shutdown.
Now that we have a shutdown, go ahead and blame the Democrats for a nonexistent demand.
Even President Donald Trump — surprise, surprise — spews out wrong information. On Tuesday, a reporter asked him to clarify the issue. “What are you talking about when you say Democrats want to protect (undocumented immigrants’) healthcare?,” he was questioned.
“So when an illegal person comes in, a person who came into our country illegally, therefore breaking the law, and look, we all have big hearts. I have a bigger heart than you do,” Trump said. “Uh, they’re all breaking the law, and they’re coming into our country. And we just as a country cannot afford to take care of millions of people who have broken the law coming in.”
OK, that was not an answer. Let’s continue with his answer.
“We want them to come into our country, but we want them to come in legally. Now we have a strong border, a very strong border, thanks to Kristi (Noem) and Tom Homan and the whole group,” Trump continued. “They’ve done an amazing job at the border. We had a border that was a disaster.
“They were coming in...
Trump falsely claims 274 FBI agents were placed in the January 6 crowd. DOJ report found no evidence FBI agents orchestrated the Capitol riot. 1,400 arrests made and 1,000 convictions tied to the...