One of President Trump’s primary challengers said he would “absolutely” build more border wall as president and knocked Trump’s efforts to do so thus far.
Long shot Republican contender Mark Sanford told the Hill that although he disagrees with many of the president’s views on immigration, he does support the construction of some sort of physical barrier along the U.S. southern border with Mexico.
“For all the banter that’s gone back and forth, he hasn’t gotten any of it done,” Sanford said before criticizing the Trump administration’s lack of progress on building new wall. “He certainly caused a lot of friction, a lot of smoke and fire, but there’s not been an additional mile of wall built.”
Sanford, who is the 59-year-old former governor of South Carolina, said the amount of partisanship and division between Democrats and Republicans over border security has created “hyperbole” on both sides of the political spectrum. He said that hyperbole has made even minor fixes or additions to the border difficult to achieve.
“It’s such an overblown argument. You’ve got about 700 miles of secure or quasi-secure border. You’ve got about 1,300 miles of open border presently,” Sanford said. “This is not about closing the entire border.”
[Read more: ‘The Three Stooges’: Trump takes aim at GOP primary challengers Sanford, Weld, and Walsh]
Sanford is campaigning for the Republican nomination against Trump along with former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh and Bill Weld, the former governor of Massachusetts.
Sanford is partially running on the issue of lowering the deficit and fighting government spending. He told the Washington Examiner last weekend that he flew from Baltimore, Maryland, to Nashville, Tennessee, to attend Politicon on a budget flight operated by Spirit Airlines.
“Money doesn’t grow on trees,” Sanford said, noting that his campaign has also made use of Megabus for transportation.
