White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Sunday said Democrats are using the deaths of two migrant children at the border as “political pawns” — defending President Donald Trump’s tweet assigning blame to the party.
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Conway said stronger border-security measures would deter attempts to cross illegally.
“I don't like some of the Democrats using these deaths as political pawns,” she said, denying that’s what the president was doing with his tweet.
“The president is not doing that. The president does not want [migrants] to come on a perilous journey to begin with. They are paying — now some of them are paying the ultimate price — but many of them are paying these coyotes who don't give a wit about human life.”
“I think the president’s point is an important one,” Conway said of Trump’s tweet on the deaths of the children. “He stayed in Washington to negotiate border security.”
She chided Democrats for not reaching out to the president to negotiate an end to the partial government shutdown triggered by a lack of border wall money in a funding bill.
“They know where he is,” she said. “He's exactly where he has been the entire time, working in Washington, D.C., in the White House.”
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