Joe Biden is being called out for immigration virtue-signaling after a video of the Democratic candidate calling for a fence "40 stories high" at the US-Mexican border to keep out the Mexicans bringing in drugs resurfaced.
"I voted for a fence," Biden boasts in the video, unearthed by CNN, before launching into a rant against "American employers who knowingly violate the law when, in fact, they hire illegals" and "people driving across that border with tons, tons, hear me, tons of everything from byproducts for methamphetamine to cocaine to heroin and it's all coming up through corrupt Mexico."
The Biden in the video stands in stark contrast to the Democratic frontrunner who has accused Trump of using migrants' illegal status "to demonize people" and called his immigration policy "one of the darkest moments in our history."
Filmed at a South Carolina campaign stop in November 2006, the clip is hardly ancient history. Biden was referring to his vote for the Secure Fence Act, which secured over $1 billion for 700 miles of double-layered fencing on the border, and he wasn't alone in supporting it - then-Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama also voted for the measure.
Many people jumped in to defend the apparent Democratic frontrunner, insisting a fence is nothing like a wall,
or even attacking CNN for criticizing Biden – after all, we've all said things in the past we no longer agree with…
But Trump supporters and progressives agreed Biden's credibility was shot.
"Build the wall" – or the fence – is one of several controversial positions in Biden's past, as he revealed in the video. "I'm the guy who wrote the crime bill, I'm the guy who wrote the national drug trafficking bill, I'm the guy who wrote the law that set up a drug czar," he boasts later in the clip, referring to the notorious Clinton-era law that instituted draconian "three strikes" sentencing laws and toughened punishments for nonviolent drug offenders. Because of "three strikes," American prisons are packed with (mostly black) men serving life sentences for offenses like marijuana possession that are no longer even considered crimes in many states. Biden's support for NAFTA, the free trade agreement widely considered to have eviscerated the American middle class, also hasn't aged well, particularly in light of his "Lunch-Bucket Joe" working-man persona.
In fact, some pointed out, he has a lot more in common with Trump than he does with many Democrats.
Despite his questionable policy record and the habit of getting into women's personal space that has earned him the nickname "Creepy Joe" among his critics, polls still place Biden at the front of the Democratic pack with more than twice the support of Sanders, his closest rival. But there are signs his campaign may be in trouble, as campaign advisor John Anzalone tweeted out a message advising Democrats not to take the polls too literally, since Biden supporters don't use Twitter…
…only to be raked over the coals for his work lobbying against unions for Trump's "NAFTA 2.0" trade deal.
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