White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney tore apart critics who said that cuts to the current level of foreign aid some Central American countries could tamper the migrant crisis the United States faces at it’s border.
Mulvany defended the President’s decision to cut foreign aid to Central American countries, including Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, a move that has been widely criticized from the Dems and mainstream media.
People like Sen. Bob Menendez claimed the cuts could hurt the United States interests in the region, saying, “U.S. foreign assistance is not charity; it advances our strategic interests and funds initiatives that protect American citizens.”
Mulvaney appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” with host Jake Tapper and addressed the critics of the decision and questioned why they believe the current level of funding is actually helping our country’s interests at all.
“There’s a lot of good ways to help solve this problem [at the border]. Congress could do it, but they’re not going to. Mexico could help us do it, they need to do a little more. Honduras could do more. Nicaragua could do more. El Salvador could do more. And if we’re going to give these countries hundreds of millions of dollars, we would like them to do more.” he said.
Mulvaney stated that it’s not an “unreasonable position” for the Trump administration to want to see more of an effort from Central America to address and fix their own issues.
“We could prevent a lot of what’s happening at the southern border by preventing people from moving into Mexico in the first place,” Mulvaney argued.
Host Tapper also urged that foreign aid in Central America does help to keep people migrating at all by boosting regional stability, but Mulvaney pushed back on that point.
“If it’s working so well, why are the people still coming?” asked Mulvaney. “Why are these historic numbers? Again, 100,000 people will cross the border this month alone. That is a crisis. It’s a humanitarian crisis; it’s a security crisis.”
Mulvaney pointed to recent numbers released by the Department of Homeland Security, outlining the spike in apprehensions at our southern border.
The White House chief of staff explained that many of the same people criticizing the decision to cut foreign aid thought the White House was “exaggerating” the problem at the border just few months ago during the government shutdown.
