A few proverbial fireworks went off the other day in the White House Press briefing room between Trump adviser Stephen Miller, and CNNs Jim Acosta. Miller was completely cool and in control revealing Acosta’s agenda, namely using any policy position to ‘prove’ that Trump is racist and not worthy of the office – never mind being interested in telling the truth.
Acosta meandered into conflating the Wall-building policy with the proposed changes to legal immigration. Until the current Trump era, only the radical fringe of the Left considered illegal migrants the equal of legal immigrants. And let us not forget that Congress critters on both sides of the aisle have been wrestling with the problem of migrants since Obama opened the floodgates and began letting anyone and everyone in.
In any case, the English requirement is overstated somewhat in this exchange, and Acosta really should have kept quiet on it. Having been through the full gamut of American citizenship myself, it’s not the only part of the scoring system. Plus, anyone seeking to work in the USA and succeed obviously is motivated to learn English! I have never met an American engineer or any other professional who didn’t speak English.
There is definitely a consensus in America regardless of where parents or grandparents came from, that there is a culture worth preserving and developing. This truth however, is no longer acknowledged in most of the Big Mass Media and is routinely denied in academia and elsewhere.
Daniel Greenfield from his blog in FrontPageMagazine…
It’s not just that they’re totalitarians. It’s not just that they want to destroy America. It’s that they’re really stupid. Watch as CNN’s Jim Acosta tries to debate Trump adviser Stephen Miller.
Miller cut his teeth fighting leftists in leftistville. Jim Acosta thinks that a poem on the Statue of Liberty is immigration law. Acosta, like most lefties, knows one thing. And that is that…
1. Immigrants make America great.
2. The ideal immigrant is illiterate and unskilled. Possibly violent and a burden on society.
How the two are supposed to work together is something you’re not supposed to ask.
And, anyway, there’s a poem. On the Statue of Liberty. Also, like most lefties, Acosta has no idea what immigration laws says. And doesn’t care. That’s how the media could spend years insisting that there can be no religious test for refugees. Or, as Acosta does, insist that learning English or being self-supporting can’t be actual requirements.
When Stephen Miller points out that the Statue of Liberty predated the poem, Acosta calls it “National Park revisionism”. Of course this is accompanied by his colleagues giggling on cue while Acosta interrupts.
But really this highlights how hopelessly stupid the left has become. Acosta can’t debate Miller. He has no historical knowledge. All he can do is pound the progressive pulpit.
Stephen Miller asks, “Do you at CNN not really know the difference between green card and illegal immigration policy?”
The usually safe answer is, no. As Ben Rhodes once informed us, the media doesn’t know anything except how to virtue signal.
The capper of this stupidity is Acosta insisting that expecting immigrants to know English means that our only immigrants will come from the UK and Australia. Yes, the media is that stupid.
Common sense says if you enter a country, even for a visit, and you don’t speak the language, you are at a disadvantage. Learning a language takes time, during which you would be a burden unable to live a normal life until such time as you learn the basics of the language. Apart from which, language is not the only issue; a person hoping to be successful in a new country must learn and respect the culture and the laws. Basically that is all President Trump’s immigration policy is asking for.
Nonetheless, Acosta’s weak arguments were a text book display of the soft bigotry of low expectations and the condescension the Left constantly displays towards minorities.
Strike one up for the Gipper!
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See also Thomas Lifson and “CNN, NYT reporters humiliated at immigration briefing.”