Democratic nominee Joe Biden was put on his heels after attacking President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, forced to acknowledge that former president Barack Obama’s detention of children at the border was a “mistake.”
Biden took aim at Trump’s policies toward migrants during Thursday’s presidential debate, slamming the administration for separating children from their parents at the border, which he said made the US a “laughing stock” around the world and violated “every notion of who we are as a nation.”
Trump argued that migrant children are often brought into the country illegally by “bad people” and “cartels,” pivoting to border policies enacted by the Obama administration, under which Biden served as vice president, including the detention of children in “cages.”
“They used to say I built the cages. They had a picture in a certain newspaper… of these horrible cages. They used to say: ‘Look at these cages, President Trump built them,’” he said, adding: “Then it was determined they were built in 2014 – that was him,” pointing at Biden across the stage.
He had eight years to do what he said he was going to do. We got rid of catch-and-release, we got rid of a lot of horrible things that they put in and that they lived with… He did nothing except build cages to keep children in.
Moderator Kristen Welker then weighed in, asking Biden to explain why the previous administration failed to implement immigration reform while overseeing record deportations and the detention of families, policies the Democratic nominee has himself blasted under Trump.
“We made a mistake, it took too long to get it right,” Biden answered. “I’ll be president of the United States, not vice president of the United States.”
As part of his very own immigration system overhaul, Biden vowed to create a “pathway to citizenship” for over 11 million undocumented immigrants within the first 100 days of his presidency, also saying he would “immediately” certify migrant children to reside in the country legally.
Some netizens called out Biden for throwing his ex-boss “under the bus” with his insistence that he was not president at the time when the ill-conceived migrant policy was introduced, but merely a VP. That is despite the former president having campaigned for Biden as recently as this week, even hosting a rally.
Underrated part of the night was Joe flailing to defend himself and ends up blasting at Barack Obama who JUST got done campaigning for him.“Well I wasn’t president. I was Vice President. Things will be different when I’m in charge.” pic.twitter.com/cLDVMcT2ED
@seanhannity why is no one talking about Biden’s comment that he would be successful this time on immigration – bc he would be President… insinuating Obama was the reason immigration failed against Joe’s advise… reluctant Obama I’m sure is happy to be thrown under the bus
Did anyone else notice, Biden blamed Obama for being too slow to fix immigration & that Biden couldn’t get it done as VP. Obama’s gonna be pissed.
Supporters came to Biden’s defense, however, seeing his remarks as a sincere mea culpa for previous mistakes and as “brutally honest,” things they insisted one would never hear from the current president.
Biden acknowledged, again, the harm of Obama’s immigration policies & called them a mistake.As an immigrant this was an emotional & important moment. TY Biden. As an organizer I also know the pressure from our movement made this moment possible. #Organize#Vote#Debates2020
Biden admits to making mistakes with the southern border. He wants to send a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants along with a plan for DREAMers, DACA recipients, and more, within his first 100 days. He admitted mistakes, though. That’s HUGE. #Debates2020
Biden on their border policy while he was VP : “We made a mistake. It took too long to get it right….”When’s the last time you heard someone running for president be so brutally honest? You would never ever get that from Trump
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
