Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf celebrated “nearly 400 miles” of border wall construction Thursday by mocking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and media critics who’d said President Trump would never be able to get it done.
He specifically called out Washington Post and Los Angeles Times pieces from 2017 and 2018 that said Mr. Trump was going to disappoint his supporters by failing on the wall promise, perhaps the marquee vow he made during the 2016 campaign. The Post told Trump voters “You got scammed,” while the Los Angeles Times suggested it was “a promise Trump can’t keep.”
Mr. Wolf on Thursday said those have been proved to be “outright lies.”
“Not only has the media and politicians been proven wrong, they have been proven wrong 400 times — and counting,” he said from McAllen, Texas.
He also chided Mrs. Pelosi, who last year said no new wall has been built. As of mid-October, 45 miles of wall have been built in locations where no barrier existed before. And nearly 350 more miles of wall have been erected to replace outdated barriers.
Homeland Security officials said that, too, counts as “new” wall, and drew the comparison to replacing an old car with a new model.
“Do you tell them you bought a replacement car, or do you tell them you bought a brand new car?” said acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan. “It’s a brand new wall.”
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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