President Donald Trump's counselor Kellyanne Conway slammed Democrats who want to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE], accusing them of "pressing for leverage in 2020."
"It's a very simple binary choice: You are either for a sovereign nation that has a border, or you are for open borders and a lot of the crime that comes with that," Conway told Fox News' Fox & Friends."
"The call for the abolition of ICE, in my view is the intersection of arrogance and ignorance."
She blamed the calls to abolish on "these people preening for leverage" when the 2020 presidential election takes place.
"Really, folks?" she said. "What exactly have you done in 2018 or 2017 for that matter, that you are worried about 2020?"
There are "smarter," and "more senior Democrats " such as Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., saying he does not think calling to abolish ICE is fruitful, as they push back against lawmakers such as Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.
"For her to refer to ICE as a terrorist organization, those brave men and women in Immigration and Customs Enforcement are doing their job," said Conway.
For example, she said, last year ICE agents confiscated "enough fentanyl to kill every American," and in New York recently, ICE caught 40 criminals.
"The idea of abolishing ICE is very unfortunate talking points," said Conway. "If the Democrats are running on that, you have [Rep] Maxine Waters attacking [Sen.] Chuck Schumer; you have Dick Blumenthal attacking Kirsten Gillibrand and the woman who just on in the Bronx [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] on their view on ICE.
She also slammed New York Mayor Bill de Blasio for his calls to abolish ICE and "running to the border."
"Have you looked around lately?" she said. "He has a lot of problems in his own city. He could stay there and correct them and help the people in need there."
Conway also commented on Trump's decision to congratulate Mexico's newly elected president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, saying the president communicates with nations' leaders "in the pursuit of peace and prosperity."
"In the case of Mexico, obviously, we share a border with them," Conway said. "This president has made very clear about building that wall and having Mexico pay for it. He has been very clear about border security."
When Trump speaks of border security, she added, "he is talking about us being a sovereign nation that obviously has physical borders. How many billions of dollars have we spent over how many years helping other countries protect their sovereign borders? It's high time we do the same here."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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