Headlines blared this weekend that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said he favors building a giant wall along the northern border, but his camp claims he never said this.
“Despite the attempts of some to put words in his mouth, Gov. Walker wasn’t advocating for a wall along our northern border,” campaign spokeswoman AshLee Strong told the Washington Examiner’s media desk on Monday.
Walker said in an interview this weekend on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that he believes the northern border poses a legitimate security issue. As Walker started to elaborate on these concerns, his interviewer, Chuck Todd, asked whether he supports building a wall on the Canadian border.
“Some people have asked us about that in New Hampshire,” Walker said as the two talked over each other for a few seconds. “They raised some very legitimate concerns, including some law enforcement folks that brought that up to me at one of our town hall meetings about a week and a half ago. So that is a legitimate issue for us to look at.”
The governor never went so far as to say we should construct a wall similar to the one being proposed for the border between the United States and Mexico.
He explained that addressing security concerns on the northern border would mean ensuring that the “intelligence community has the ability for counterterrorism and the ability to go after the infrastructure they need to protect us.”
But from these remarks, and even though it seemed clear that the two were talking past each other a little, the press took Walker to mean that he wants a wall on the border between the United States and Canada.
CNN reported, “Scott Walker: U.S.-Canada wall a ‘legitimate’ idea.”
“Scott Walker Open To Building Wall Along Border With Canada,” the Huffington Post said.
MarketWatch followed with, “Scott Walker wants to build a wall — with Canada.”
CBS News reported, “Build a US-Canada border wall? Scott Walker isn’t ruling it out.”
“Scott Walker: Building a Wall Along U.S. Border With Canada a ‘Legitimate Issue,'” a Bloomberg News headline read.
“Scott Walker Wants to Build a 3987 Mile Wall — on the Canada Border?” the Fiscal Times asked.
Even international news organizations got in on the action, with the Guardian publishing a headline reading, “Scott Walker says building Canada border wall is a ‘legitimate issue.'”
The Daily Mail ran with a none-too-subtle headline reading, “Border bashers battle! Scott Walker says he’d consider building a wall between the U.S. and CANADA after Trump touts Mexico barrier plan.”
Only a small handful of newsrooms, including the Washington Post, which corrected its original headline suggesting Walker wanted a wall, broke with the pack to note that the governor was talking about overall security concerns on the northern border.
“Chuck asked about it and Gov. Walker said based on what he’s hearing from people there are security concerns that need to be addressed,” his campaign told the Examiner.
Strangely enough, the press didn’t have the same reaction in 2001 when then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., warned in comments to the Press-Republican of possible security threats on the northern border.
“This is a significant problem,” the Democratic presidential front-runner said of the border between Canada and the United States. “We have more than 3,000-plus miles on our border, and we have water as well as land. There is going to be a lot of work to do.'”
