White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly was upfront about the administration’s goals when he met with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoye, and Rep. Judy Chu.
It’s time to be realistic. Mexico is not going to pay for the wall. The wall won’t span the entire southern border. President Trump’s campaign promises might have been a little too enthusiastic.
“One thing is to campaign, another thing is to govern. It’s really hard,” Kelly said.
Democrats were, unsurprisingly, pleased with the meeting. “He called the meeting to listen, is how he framed it,” Rep. Pete Aguilar of California said of Kelly.
They started bleating it about it immediately…causing Kelly to realize what he’d said and attempt to backtrack.
“We have some ideas on how things like visa fees, renegotiation on NAFTA [the North American Free Trade Agreement], on what that would mean to our economy,” Kelly explained on Fox News’s “Special Report with Brett Baier.”
“In one way or another, it’s possible that we could get the revenue from Mexico, but not directly from their government.”
He also explained why the wall won’t stretch across the entire border.
“There are places where geographically, a wall would not be realistic. There are other parts of the southwest border that are so wild and untamed that there is no traffic that goes through them,” he said.
“There [are] other places we think about 800 miles [of] additional wall to include the 600 that’s already in place … would suffice.”
Kelly’s “save” however, doesn’t quite erase his earlier words.
So John Kelly, Trump's Chief of Staff, says Trump is "uninformed" about the wall and other border issues?
Somebody tell John Kelly that if Trump doesn't build the wall, he won't get reelected.
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) January 17, 2018