Sen. Tim Kaine pointed out the obvious to CNN's Brianna Keillar when it comes to who and which party is threatening the Dreamers right now.
Keillar: Let's talk about Dreamers. You voted in favor of the $1.3 trillion spending package even though the bill didn't include a fix for 800,000 Dreamers, undocumented immigrants, who entered the U.S. as kids. It's something Americans overwhelmingly support. And here's what president trump said on Friday.
TRUMP: I can tell you this, and i say this to DACA recipients, that the republicans are with you, they want to get your situation taken care of. The democrats fought us. They just fought every single inch of the way. They did not want DACA in this bill.
KEILLAR: Is that going to work? Do Democrats risk losing the support of Americans who overwhelmingly want this fixed?
KAINE: Brianna, I'm going to be really blunt here, that quote of the president, he is either lying or he is completely delusional. Why is there DACA?
Because a Democratic president, President Obama, supported by Democratic legislators, put it in place in 2012.
Why is DACA threatened? Because a Republican president, Donald Trump, supported by Republican legislators, announced in September that the program was going to be ended.
One person can save DACA. If president Trump believes in DACA, all he has to do is retract his executive order from September where he broke a promise to Dreamers and said he was going to end the program. I was the chief negotiator on the democratic side of a bipartisan dreamer bill one month ago where we --
KEILLAR: But that's not on the table, Senator...
KAINE: No, it is on the table.
KEILLAR: ...reinstating the executive order.
KAINE:It is on the table. No. Both are on the table. The president can reinstate, if he cares about Dreamers or if Republicans care about Dreamers, he can reinstate the executive order tomorrow with the stroke of one person's pen.
And deal that we put on the table was protect Dreamers and give president trump $25 billion, every penny that he asked for, for border security. He turned the deal down. Go back and read what the White House and DHS said about the deal when we put it on the table.
President Trump opposes Dreamers or he could protect them in the stroke of the pen in the next five minutes if he wanted to. So we're going to keep looking for a solution, but the key is we do not have the support of the White House, we don't have the support of Republicans. We either have to change their mind or we have to get more democrats in office. That's the way we're going to protect dreamers.
Keiller continually used right wing framing for every question leading up to this last one during her interview with Kaine while filling in for Jake Tapper on CNN's State of the Union. Trump and Republicans have no interest whatsoever in negotiating in good faith on this issue and shouldn't be treated as such.
Kaine is correct about what voters can do that care about the issue, which is to vote Republicans out of office who will never lift a finger to protect these kids.
