ICYMI · News · Press Release

ICYMI: Young Kim Doubts Whether Family Separations, ‘Crying Children’ Are Real

“Young Kim’s comments are disturbing in the extreme – our leaders should be working together to find solutions to the child separation crisis, not indulging in extremist conspiracy theories while families are being ripped apart.” – DCCC Spokesperson Drew Godinich

KEY EXCERPT:

“If you ask me personally what happens at the border, it worries me, it concerns me,” she said. “I don’t want to see a crying child, but what’s the real story behind it?”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

 Battle for House Control Runs Through California’s Orange County

John McCormick | July 10, 2018

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-11/battle-for-house-control-runs-through-california-s-orange-county

A fierce battle over a handful of congressional seats in the Southern California bastion of Republicanism could determine both the GOP’s future in the state and the outcome of the national battle for control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Orange County, a region of 3.1 million people just south of Los Angeles, has long been the ideological center of California conservatism. But it’s been undergoing some of the same demographic shifts that have realigned the politics of other regions of the country.

The changes are reflected in the Republican and Democratic candidates competing in one of the most closely watched U.S. House races in the country: a 55-year-old immigrant who would be the first Korean-American woman to serve in Congress is running against a 47-year-old Latino lottery winner and U.S. Navy veteran.

Young Kim, an aide to retiring Republican Representative Ed Royce, faces Democrat Gil Cisneros, a retired naval officer who won $266 million in California’s Mega Millions lottery in 2010. They face off in the 39th congressional district, one of seven in the state now held by a Republican that both parties regard as vital to determining who wins control of the House in the November election.

[…]

Cisneros took his family to see a border detention facility in Texas last month. His wife said she later heard their twin four-year-old boys chanting “A family, united, cannot be divided” in their back seat.

Cisneros is going “full frontal” on the Trump administration, said Michael Latner, an associate professor of political science at the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. Kim, he noted, didn’t take a stand against the administration’s policy of separating illegal immigrant children from their families until the day after Trump himself reversed his position.

“That’s exactly the sort of issue that you would think would work for a candidate like Kim, trying to distinguish herself from the far right in her party, but she has to carefully negotiate immigrant and women’s issues,” Latner said.

Kim said the issues most important to the district are access to education and the business climate.

“This district, they care more about, ‘Do I have a roof over my head?’ ” she said. “Is this where I can raise my children and provide good quality education?”

While separating illegal immigrant children from their parents troubled her, she said, she chose not to make a political issue out of it.

“If you ask me personally what happens at the border, it worries me, it concerns me,” she said. “I don’t want to see a crying child, but what’s the real story behind it?”

[…]





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