Glenn Beck is trying to show his compassionate side this week, announcing an event next week in McAllen, Texas to give children fleeing violence food, water, and other items including teddy bears and soccer balls. As he said of the children:
Through no fault of their own, they are caught in political crossfire. And while we continue to put pressure on Washington and change its course of lawlessness, we must also help. It is not either, or. It is both. We have to be active in the political game, and we must open our hearts.
It would be very kind and caring of Glenn Beck. Except that yesterday when the President asked Congress for $3.7 billion to cover the costs associated with detaining, caring for, and returning the children, Beck said that the country should not spend “another dime” on them. And referring to Washington’s “lawlessness” suggests that Beck is among the conservatives who don’t fully believe that extreme violence is what is driving the children’s migration, despite the evidence.
Did we mention that he’s supposed to be joined at the event by Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Louie Gohmert? And that Gohmert just this week accused the Obama Administration of letting the children in so that they can vote Democrat and claimed that some of the children might be radical Islamic terrorists? (Both claims are so preposterous it’s hard to know where to start with them.)
So, a word to Glenn Beck: food, water, teddy bears, and soccer balls, yes, are compassionate things to provide. But it’s hardly opening your hearts to these children when you simultaneously call them terrorists and campaign for their deportation back to the horrifically violent countries they worked so hard to escape from.
