Remember last summer when CNN’s Jim Acosta decided to turn a press briefing into a poetry reading by getting into a back-and-forth over the Trump administration’s immigration policy with White House senior adviser Stephen Miller? We do:
Trump advisor Stephen Miller and CNN's Jim Acosta just got in an argument about the poem on the Statue of Liberty pic.twitter.com/WlGtL7b75v
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) August 2, 2017
Apparently unsatisfied with President Trump’s immigration policy, Acosta, allegedly a reporter, started reading bits of the poem “The New Colossus” to Miller as if it were official immigration policy; then he went on Twitter and tweeted the poem because turning the briefing room into a political debate stage wasn’t enough.
Now Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, almost certainly a Democratic presidential candidate in 2020, is returning to that same well.
Emma Lazarus’s poem on the Statue of Liberty promises an America defined by hope and refuge for all who are in need. This is the founding principle of our country. One that President Trump has turned his back on. One we must fight to hold onto. pic.twitter.com/RNKHOckfRw
— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) November 30, 2018
Our favorite part of that tweet is her choice not to highlight the line, “The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.” Funny how everyone stops reading right before that line.
In any case, the senator was reminded that the poem on the Statue of Liberty neither defines America nor is it representative of “the founding principle of our country.”
Is this what the 2020 debates are going to look like? This is the Democrats’ policy on the migrant caravan rushing the border fence and throwing rocks at Border Patrol agents while waiting in a line 5,000 deep to apply for political asylum?
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No, cause these aren't refugees. They can build a nice country there, not tear ours down.
— James Clune (@JamesClune19) November 30, 2018
Legal immigrants are welcome…invaders are NOT…
— Harry Gato (@harrygato) November 30, 2018
It's a poem, not a policy.
— Laurie (@WaltsPrincesss) November 30, 2018
A poem isn't the law
— Billcrowley3rd (@Jakeblow6) November 30, 2018
Poems are not laws in this country. As an elected member of government I think you would know the difference between the two.
— J Minear (@minear_j) November 30, 2018
Second rate poems.
— Mario TruDoh! (@kova_mario) November 30, 2018
Do you know that was before taxpayer funded welfare?
— Seriously? (@ChewOnThis31) November 30, 2018
And that was written when we had no social programs…when neighbors would take care of the poor not the government.
— Chris Busi (@Cbusi1) November 30, 2018
You realize if you so much as had a cold at Ellis Island, you were back on the boat, right?
It's almost as if there was some security at the border or something.
— Ronaldus Magnus (@RMagnusVRWC) November 30, 2018
Sorry, rushing our border, waving the flag of the country you are supposedly fleeing and throwing rocks at border patrol is NOT what was meant. Back then people came to work. Now those crossing illegally want welfare. We are done supporting illegals.
— Paul Wenzel (@Pwenzel9907) November 30, 2018
The original engraving was "July 4, 1776." It was a celebration of the liberation of the US from tyranny. The Lazarus sonnet was written almost 100 years later to raise money for the pedestal of the statue. She has nothing to do with immigration.
— TX Devil Doc (@teufeldoc) November 30, 2018
Remember when Obama’s CBP was tear gassing immigrants approximately 11 times per week and you totally freaked out and accused him of using chemical weapons?
Neither do I!!
— Paul Z (@PaulZWaDC) November 30, 2018
So sad that you just personally confirmed my suspicion that you are an embarrassingly ignorant senator.
Suggest you have someone on your staff tutor you on the USA’s founding principles.
— francisco (@benniehimself) November 30, 2018
Related:
'Stop talking'! Dem Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand cements status as 'mindnumbingly vapid partisan hack' https://t.co/gUk9YElEke
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) September 28, 2018
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