President Trump’s next chief of staff dismissed the then-candidate’s border wall and immigration views as “absurd and almost childish” in 2015.
“The fence doesn’t solve the problem. Is it necessary to have one, sure? Would it help? Sure. But 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,” Mick Mulvaney said in an interview with WHRI radio in South Carolina.
The interview was uncovered by CNN on Friday.
Mulvaney had been asked about the potential challenges with Trump’s promise to build a border wall and deport illegal immigrants. In his response, he did not make a distinction between a border wall and a border fence.
“And by the way, 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.'”
The comments were unearthed as the government is barreling toward a government shutdown over Trump’s demands for border wall funding.
It’s another instance of Mulvaney being sharply critical of the president during the 2016 presidential campaign. Mulvaney also called Trump “a terrible human being” in a debate for his congressional seat representing South Carolina. The Daily Beast published video of the remark last week. In other comments rediscovered by CNN, Mulvaney said Trump was not a good role model for his children.
The comments were made in the aftermath of the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump bragged about groping women without their consent.
Trump announced last week Mulvaney would be his next chief of staff after John Kelly departs the White House at the end of the year.
Trump was said to be “furious” after becoming aware of Mulvaney’s “terrible human being” remark, Axios reported.
A spokesperson for Mulvaney has said the comments are “old news” and that Mulvaney has changed his mind about Trump since they met.
