Giddy conservative's claim debunked to his face on CNN: 'They conflate everything'

A conservative commentator yelped with delight over the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the federal government's policy of turning back asylum seekers before they can reach the border, and a fellow CNN panelist calmly dismantled his argument.

The justices ruled 6-3 that a policy adopted in response to a surge of Haitian immigrants did not violate a federal law permitting noncitizens to apply for asylum upon arrival in the U.S., and the majority and dissenting opinions addressed the racial animus in the policy – but from completely different vantage points.

"Look, this administration has said such heinous things about Haitians, in particular, that there's obviously racial animus in the way they made this decision about [temporary protected status] for their status, and it was interesting," said "CNN This Morning" host Audie Cornish. "You had Elena Kagan writing, 'the statements fairly shout in their racial undertones and overtones alike that race entered into the president's resolve to remove Haitians from this country.' I'm not sure if we have some clips of that, we might, but, needless to say, we have been hearing over the years, especially during campaign time, when [Vice President JD] Vance accused Haitians of all manner of things, and that, the Court rejected that."

The Daily Signal's Rob Bluey could hardly contain his glee over the ruling.

"Well, I'm glad you brought up the campaign because, I think, going back to this conversation just more broadly, on immigration, Donald Trump promised to carry out the largest mass deportation in our country's history," he said. "The fact of the matter is, if you look at the first year of the Trump administration, they did not hit the mark on the President's own promise, and now the deportation coalition is saying that they need to deport up to a million legal immigrants this year."

Cornish challenged him to explain more.

"Are you bringing this up because you're saying this was a win they needed?" Cornish said.

"Yes!" he yelped. "I'm saying that Donald Trump is, if that's the promise that he was going to deliver on, and that was a central theme of his 2024 campaign. These victories at the Supreme Court certainly put him on the pathway to getting back on track when it comes to carrying out that. Now we may disagree on whether or not that's the policy the United States should carry out. I just happen to say, as a conservative and as somebody who [is happy] with the ruling – absolutely. I think that these rogue judges were out of step, absolutely I do."

New York Times podcaster Lulu Garcia-Navarro had been looking on with mute horror as Bluey gushed over the ruling, and she picked apart his argument when he finished.

"Well, the first thing is these were not illegal immigrants," she said. "These were people who were here and were given legal status. They did all the things that they needed to do. Specifically, they got vetted, they have jobs – they are nurses, they are doctors, they are journalists."

"The problem that I have always with this argument is made by conservatives is that they conflate everything, right?" Garcia-Navarro added. "It's like illegal immigrants, TPS holders, it's basically anyone who's brown who has been allowed in this country, we have seen under this administration – basically refugees. The entire refugee program being suspended and being now handed over to white South Africans. What is this about, if not about racial animus? And I think what Elena Kagan was pointing to was the president's very own statements. 'They're eating the dogs, they're eating the cats,' talking about Haitians who were working, and that was completely fabricated."

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