Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is unfazed by the avalanche of headlines claiming he favors building a wall on the Canadian border.
“I’ve never talked about a wall at the north, I’m certainly not now. That’s just what happens when things get run amok,” the 2016 Republican presidential candidate said Tuesday during an interview on Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom.”
“This is just a joke in terms of how people react to things,” he added. “I’ve said for some time that we need to secure the southern border. I’ve talked about the infrastructure, the personnel and the technology needed there. I’ve talked about enforcing the laws.”
Newsrooms rushed to report this weekend that Walker is interested in erecting a wall on the border between the United States and Canada. The headlines came after Walker’s Sunday appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
As Walker explained why he believes the northern border poses a legitimate security issue, his interviewer, Chuck Todd, asked whether he supports building a wall like the one proposed for the border between the United States and Mexico.
“Some people have asked us about that in New Hampshire,” Walker said as he and Todd started to talk past each other. “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.”
But that didn’t stop newsrooms from reporting that Walker wants a Canadian wall.
“Scott Walker Wants to Build a 3987 Mile Wall — on the Canada Border?” the Fiscal Times asked in a headline.
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.”
A spokeswoman for Walker campaign told the Washington Examiner’s media desk Monday that the governor never suggested building a wall on the northern border.
“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 said. “[Chuck Todd] asked about it and Gov. Walker said based on what he’s hearing from people there are security concerns that need to be addressed.”
But despite clarifications from the governor’s camp, and despite that it was Todd who brought up the wall, the narrative that Walker wants to erect a wall on the Canadian border looks as if it may stick.
Even fellow 2016 Republican candidate Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., weighed in this week on Walker’s supposed suggestion, calling the Great Wall of Canada “a pretty dumb idea.”
(h/t Mediaite)
