Katie Pavlich calls out AOC, Ilhan Omar, other liberal Dems for 'cynical ploy' on border funding
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Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich said Tuesday that she believes liberal Democrats like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar are using a "cynical ploy" amid negotiations for emergency border funding.
After both of the freshman Democrats expressed reservations about a bill to provide $4.5 billion to address the escalating humanitarian crisis, Pavlich said on "Outnumbered" that they both appear more interested in "political talking points, rather than solving the problem."
Omar, D-Minn., and Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., both called on Congress to focus on a more comprehensive immigration bill.
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“We cannot continue to throw money at a dysfunctional system,” said Omar. "With this crisis, they were not equipped. And we cannot try to help them get out of this situation without having a full, comprehensive plan to deal with the humanitarian crisis we’re seeing."
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She said she would not be satisfied with "simple changes" to the legislation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., met Monday with Ocasio-Cortez and other House Democrats, seeking consensus on a bill to deal with worsening conditions at border detention centers.
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"I'm not interested in ... making sure that caged children are getting warmer burritos. I’m trying to make sure that they're not getting caged in the first place," Ocasio-Cortez said after the meeting, calling the bill a "short-term measure.”
Pavlich said if Ocasio-Cortez believes the detention centers are as bad as "concentration camps," as she stated last week, then she should support fixing the situation as quickly as possible.
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"Now when it comes to getting $4.5 billion to fund the beds, get more diapers, get food for the children that Border Patrol agents and HHS staff are trying to take care of ... they are saying no, we're not going to vote for that, we want to talk about a bigger situation," Pavlich argued.
"The fact is they don't want any kind of immigration enforcement, they don't want any kind of detention. They want everyone to be able to walk in with no kind of process at all. So if they are going to continue to complain about bad humanitarian conditions, it's because they are the ones holding up funding for very specific humanitarian needs and they're using it as a cynical ploy to attack the administration."