Incoming White House acting-chief of staff Mick Mulvaney once called President Trump’s views on a border wall and immigration “simplistic” and “absurd and almost childish.”
“The fence is an easy thing to sell politically,” Mulvaney said in a 2015 interview. “It’s an easy thing for someone who doesn’t follow the issue very closely to say, ‘oh, well that’ll just solve everything, build the fence.’ When you go out and you talked to the Texas ranchers, which I’ve done, and ask them — these are the guys dealing with it every single day.”
A physical barrier would not stop undocumented immigrants from crossing the Mexican border and ranchers at the border say they don’t need a fence, Mulvaney said (not making a distinction between a wall or fence when asked about Trump’s proposed wall) in the interview uncovered by CNN’s KFile.
“The fence doesn’t solve the problem. To just say build the darn fence and have that be the end of an immigration discussion is absurd and almost childish for someone running for president to take that simplistic of a view.”
Mulvaney emphasized what many border experts contend that a wall is a symbol more than substance.
“The bottom line is the fence doesn’t stop anybody who really wants to get across,” Mulvaney said. “You go under, you go around, you go through it. And that’s what the ranchers tell us, is that they don’t need a fence. What they need is more manpower, and more technology, and more willingness to enforce the law as it exists today. There are parts of our border that are secure and parts of our border that are not. A lot of that comes down to whether or not we are just willing to enforce the law as it exists. So it’s easy to tell people what they want to hear, ‘build the darn fence, vote for me.'”
Mulvaney added he believed Trump’s emotional appeals and cavalier attitude might prompt him to try going around the Constitution.
“I wonder who is more interested in going around the Constitution in order to get things done. Barack Obama or Donald Trump,” Mulvaney said.
A spokeswoman for Mulvaney, nor the White House returned a request for comment.
The instance is another example of Mulvaney attacking Trump during the presidential campaign. It comes as he is taking over as acting chief of staff, replacing Gen. John Kelly.
Last Friday, a tape emerged of Mulvaney calling Trump “a terrible human being.”