Seth Meyers recalls last time Republicans ‘fanned the flame of immigration panic’

Seth Meyers reminded viewers on his late-night show that Republicans like to “fan the flame of immigration panic” around election time with Donald Trump voicing outrage over a bipartisan border deal.

The host compared the current conversation surrounding the border deal to the Republican’s panic over the so-called caravans of migrants around the 2018 midterms.

Back in 2018, Mr Trump made “unhinged claims” about migrants, calling them “bad” and “rough” people who were largely made up of “young, strong” men.

“What is Trump’s obsession with strong young men,” Mr Meyers asked. “Did Trump mix up his daily briefing with one of those firefighter calendars?

“And, of course, whenever Trump decides to exploit an issue for political gain, right-wing media obediently follows his cue, which is exactly what they did in 2018,” Mr Meyers continued, before showing clips of right-wing media outlets pushing Me Trump’s rhetoric with baseless claims that migrants are trying to invade the US and carry diseases like smallpox and leprosy.

“Smallpox and leprosy? So they’re big, strong men who are going to bash their way through the fence, but they’re also diseased time travellers from medieval Europe?” Mr Meyers questioned.

The panic surrounding migrants was “all cynical BS”, the host continued, as when the midterms were over, Republicans and right-wing media suddenly went quiet on the issue.

“So it’s worth keeping all that in mind as Republicans fan the flame of immigration panic,” he said, referring to the border bill discourse.

The border bill is a bipartisan effort being worked out, that could both increase security at the US-Mexico border and also provide aid to Ukraine.

Republicans are negotiating that they would pass aid for Ukraine as long as investments in border security and are put in place.

“But the problem is this guy [pointing to a picture of Mr Trump] only likes winning if everybody else loses, so now, of course, he’s trying to sabotage the deal, Mr Meyers said.

Mr Trump is trying to kill the border bill, as he allegedly does not want Joe Biden to have a victory ahead of the election, according to an anonymous source who told HuffPost.

“I’m sorry, but aren’t you the guy who told us it was a problem in the first place, so you want credit for talking about the problem and blame for blocking the solution?”

Some Republicans have shown their outrage at Mr Trump’s effort to kill the bipartisan deal, such as GOP senator Bill Cassidy saying to CNNthat the former president should read the bill before he passes judgement.

“Do you honestly expect Donald Trump to read a bill… he can’t even be bothered to proofread his own name before he tweets it,” Mr Meyers said before showing a time when Mr Trump tweeted his name as ‘Ttump’.