Pence was unable to support Trump’s blatant lie that past presidents had told him they should have built a border wall after all four living presidents denied it.
NBC’s Jackson: “Which former presidents told President Trump, as he said, that he should have built a wall? All of their representatives have denied that that was the case.”
Pence: “Well, I know the president has said that that was his impression from previous administrations, previous presidents. I know I’ve seen clips of previous presidents talking about the importance of border security and talking about the issue of illegal immigration.”
Pence cited a debunked stat about suspected terrorists attempting to enter the United States to try to misleadingly justify a wall at the southern border.
Pence: “Nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists were apprehended attempting to come into the United States through various means in the last year.”
CNN: “That number, however, is deeply misleading as justification for a wall on the southern border. According to a senior administration official familiar with Customs and Border Protection data, just 12 of those were encountered on the southern border between October 2017 and October 2018.”
Pence misleadingly claimed that a border wall would stop drugs coming in from Mexico.
Pence: “90% of all the heroin that comes into this country that claims the lives of 300 Americans every week comes through our southern border.”
CNN: “According to the latest Drug Enforcement Administration threat assessment report, the majority of heroin that enters the US does come through Mexico, but via legal ports of entry.”
FactCheck.org: “But experts, including those within his own administration, say the vast majority of the illegal heroin enters the U.S. through legal ports of entry.”
Pence brushed off criticism of the administration’s repeated lies about immigration, saying Americans “aren’t as concerned” about that.
ABC’s Karl: “How can the American people trust the president when he says this is a crisis, when he says things over and over again that aren’t true?”
Pence: “The American people aren’t as concerned about the political debate as they are about what’s really happening at the border.”