President Trump said Monday afternoon that if Democrats take control of Congress, it will lead to an onslaught of crime.
“We’re going to do very well in the midterms, and this is one of the very big reasons,” the president said at a “Support ICE” event at the White House Monday afternoon. “The fact is, people respect law and order. And I think we’re going to have much more of a red wave than a phony blue wave. Blue wave means crime, it means open borders.”
The president repeatedly targeted Democrats during his roughly 20-minute speech, calling them out for being the party of “open borders” and a party that supports crime over “law and order.”
Conventional wisdom has Democrats narrowly claiming the majority in the House in November, but the Senate is widely considered to stay under Republican control. RealClearPolitics’ polling average of a generic congressional ballot has Democrats at roughly a 7 percentage point advantage over Republicans.
Trump’s comments Monday come amid calls from Democratic lawmakers to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Republicans have used the Democrats’ anti-ICE stance as a campaign point in the lead-up to the November midterm elections.
House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republican congressional leaders attempted to get House Democrats on record voting against a bill to support ICE in mid-July. Democrats, however, did not take the bait. The majority of House Democrats — 133 — voted “present,” with the remainder split. Eighteen Democrats voted in favor the bill and 34 voted against it.
[Related: Trump warns: Abolishing ICE would cause ‘terror, bloodshed’]
