Glenn has been saying for a long time that the masks were going to come of the progressive left, and they would begin to freely discuss their true feelings and intentions. But not even Glenn could have predicted the words uttered by Congressman Joe Garcia (D-FL) during a recent Google Hangout session with supporters.
During a larger discussion about the border, Garcia claimed the safest city in America is El Paso, Texas, and El Paso “happens to be across the border from the most dangerous city in the Americas, which is Juarez [Mexico].”
“Two of the safest cities in America are on the border with Mexico,” he continued. “Of course, the reason is we’ve proved that communism works. If you give everybody a good government job, there is no crime.”
Below is a video of Garcia’s remarks:
“First of all, prediction, officially, we've kind of danced around this one for a while,” Glenn said of Garcia’s forthrightness on radio this morning.
“Here was on an elected official outright saying it,” Pat added.
There are a lot of things wrong with Garcia’s remarks. For starters, it looks like El Paso is actually the 14th safest city in the United States, according to the FBI. Futhermore, the Miami Herald’s Mark Caputo reports San Pedro Sula and Honduras are actually more dangerous than Juarez.
It should as be noted, as Stu pointed out, that the video of Garcia’s remarks that is being circulated does not include the full context of what was said. On radio this morning, Glenn, Pat, and Stu gave Garcia the benefit of the doubt by reading the full remarks as per NewsBusters:
"…It's when you attract people that you are the dominant culture, that people want to emulate and copy what you’re doing because it works.
And in America, we are, we are doing, we are doing a huge disservice to ourselves by not understanding how powerful of a driver in the economy an immigration system that works can be -- uh, and continues to be -- and by not having an immigration system that works.
And let me give you an example of the kind of money we’ve poured in: So the most dangerous—sorry, the safest- city in America is El Paso, Texas. It happens to be across the border from the most dangerous city in the Americas, which is Juarez, right? And two of the safest cities in America, two of them are on the border with Mexico.
And of course, the reason is that we’ve proved that Communism works. If you give everybody a good government job, there’s no crime. But that isn’t what we should be doing on the border. The kind of money we’ve poured into it, and we’re having diminishing returns. So while we’re doing, we’re spending all this money here, we have border problems in Puerto Rico that we haven’t been able to set up a system that’s safe there. People are finding alternative routes.
The opportunity to get this right and the mistake that Republicans make -- and I say Republicans because it’s Republicans right now -- I’m no one to say that Democrats were also possessed by Xenophobia in 2008 and particularly after 9/11 and the economic crisis, but today we’re in a much better place as a party. And the problem that Republicans have is that they’re fighting a battle they cannot win."
Garcia, who is the son of Cuban immigrants, has since said he was not condoning communism. After seeing his remarks in context, however, Pat and Stu were not convinced.
“I don't see anything in here that changes what he said. He seems to be saying we need to lighten up the border,” Stu said. “Maybe he's critical of how we put so many resources into the border and we've employed everybody. And I guess maybe that shows communism works. Maybe he's being flippant with it?”
“He didn't sound flippant,” Pat concluded. “When you see the video, he doesn't look flippant. He's saying it matter of factly.”
