Northam never refutes the charge.
Ralph Northam’s campaign is starting to slide into the truly bizarre with this latest ad blaming Donald Trump for MS-13, just days after issuing an ad saying he was willing to work with Trump, and months after calling Trump a “narcissistic maniac.”
No, you’re not the only person confused.
You want to know what’s truly odd about this ad?
NORTHAM: Ed Gillespie’s attack ad linking me to MS-13 is despicable.
Period. Full stop. Northam never refutes the charge.
Instead, the ad moves on to three other heart-tuggers before moving on to the truly headscratching moment of the ad.
NORTHAM: …because for Ed Gillespie to blame me for MS-13 is nothing more than a page from Donald Trump’s book.
…but Northam never refutes the charge.
Now Northam claims the link is despicable. Northam even sounds genuinely despondent about the consequences of his policies.
…but Northam never refutes the charge.
Just in case anyone wants to come back to center on this and review the Ed Gillespie ad concerning sanctuary cities and MS-13:
At what point does Northam explain that the link between sanctuary cities and the rise of violent criminal gangs such as MS-13 is an unfactual one in this ad?
Northam never refutes the charge.
The reader — and the viewer — are left with two conclusions: that Gillespie’s point is valid, and that Northam has no explanation otherwise.
More to the point, the panicked effort to refute the evidence runs right over the top of a previously priced and paid-for ad campaign targeting independents.
But it doesn’t matter. Northam never refutes the charge.
UPDATE: There seems to be some confusion as to whether or not MS-13 is actually a problem among our more center-left readers, so here is a good overview of the problem from The National Interest (about as centrist an outlet as we could find).
In short, between a problem of “catch and release” and the violent nature of the street gang, MS-13 is not only a high level threat in urban areas, but was the first gang to be labeled a transnational gang by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).
Consider this comparison. If a terrorist organization that totaled 33,000 and operated across borders was being aided and abetted by a lax immigration policy, would you be rightly concerned? For comparison purposes, ISIS at its height was only able to muster 31,000 according to CIA estimates.
Here is the most recent update from the U.S. Department of Justice on the size, strength, capabilities and extent of MS-13’s presence in the United States and Central America.
The debate over sanctuary cities is symptomatic of a larger policy of benign neglect over the last two decades. There are millions who are caught between the hard realities of law enforcement and the heartfelt desire to become American citizens.
Yet it is willful ignorance alone that refuses to recognize that violent criminal gangs and multinational narcotics operatives use these sluices to funnel illegal activity — drugs, extortion, sexual slavery. Sanctuary cities may indeed be an Easter egg, but no one responsibly denies that MS-13 isn’t and doesn’t take full advantage of that latitude.
Northam doesn’t even come close to recognizing this reality. Nor does he seem to want to grapple with the hard realities such policies as creating havens for illegal activity create. Certainly one can be compassionate towards families of undocumented workers while recognizing (and owning) that a policy position in favor of sanctuary cities envelops both the positive and contaminate repercussions of such a stance.
…or maybe they can’t. Northam never refutes the charge.
