Sen. Tammy Baldwin Dodges Questions on Ignoring Border Children in 2014

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) dodged questions Wednesday afternoon on whether she was concerned about the separation of immigrant families at the border under President Barack Obama in 2014.

CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin asked Sen. Baldwin about this Democratic blind spot — but only after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to end the policy of separating migrant children from adults who accompany them to the U.S. border.

A transcript follows:

BROOKE BALDWIN: “But here is a question for Democrats. Cause you hear the President now, you know, on a lot of topics, and this one included looking back to previous administrations. Well, they should have done more, right? And so as so many people in this country are certainly outraged by the cages, and the thermal blankets, and the facilities housing these kids, you know, they were all there in 2014 under President Obama. And my question to you, Senator Baldwin, is did you speak up against them then?”

SEN. TAMMY BALDWIN: “You know, on the, on this issue that we get into a moment where we’re making progress and then when it, when it stalls, we turn around. I think we all need to continue to be focused on it and press it through. The American people need confidence that we can solve problems. Nobody believes that we have an immigration system that works. It is broken. It needs fixing. And we’ve just got to resolve to do that.”

BROOKE BALDWIN: “But were you worried about it then? Did you raise your voice under the Obama Administration?”

SEN. TAMMY BALDWIN: “You know, in numbers of cases, usually, I remember a constituent who was in detention at the border, arguably very inappropriately. And, we, you know, we raised our voice in that instance and many others. But that’s, we’ve got to do this now in unison. It’s not enough to do it case by case for a Senator or a House member by House member. We’ve got to resolve to fix this issue.”