On Special Report, Fox's Marc Thiessen calls Trump's possibly illegal plan to transport migrants to sanctuary cities “pure genius”

Anchor Bret Baier: “I can hear the voices in the middle of America” agreeing with Trump

From the April 12 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Bret Baier:

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BRET BAIER (ANCHOR): Well Republicans and Democrats now concede that it is a crisis on the border. The president saying it's so much so you have to do something with the people there. And he's considering taking some illegal immigrants who can't be held past 20 days and bringing them to sanctuary cities around the country, many of them run by Democrats.

...

BAIER: You know, Marc, there's a lot of reaction to this today, and the president, as you can imagine on all sides. 

MARC THIESSEN (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): Yeah, this is probably never going to happen but I think it's pure genius to be perfectly honest with you. And I quite frankly can't understand why Democrats are upset about this. Two sets of facts; Number one, it is the position of the Democratic Party that illegal aliens held by ICE should be released into the country, into our communities. During the negotiations to end the government shutdown, Democrats, their official position, negotiating position was, that we should limit the amount of beds that ICE has to 35,000. And they expressly said, for the purpose of forcing the Trump administration to release noncriminal aliens into the community. So they're for releasing them into the communities. Second, they created sanctuary cities. This is their policy for the purpose of giving sanctuary to illegal aliens. You got Mayor de Blasio, wants to offer them free health care. You got Stacey Abrams, who wants them to vote in local elections. Governor Newsom wants to make the entire state a sanctuary. So how can you be upset about President Trump offering to do exactly what you say you want to do? 

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MATTHEW CONTINETTI (WASHINGTON FREE BEACON): I think there are two frustrations at work. One is the president's and the administration's frustration at Congress for not tackling these immigration loopholes that are driving a lot of the illegal migration and asylum seeking. And the second frustration is more widespread, it's among Trump supporters and Republicans more generally, who feel that progressives don't face up to the consequences of their own policy positions. That, you know, they are all for sanctuary cities and for lax border security, but they don't have to feel the impacts that the communities on the border do. 

BAIER: I mean, I can hear -- 

CONTINETTI: Trump is combining those with this very grand gesture that's meant to exert leverage over the Congress. 

BAIER: I can hear the voices in the middle of America, at a diner or at a bar going, “Yeah, OK. You want them, go ahead, take 'em. You're right, President Trump.” I mean, can't you?

Previously:

Fox's Neil Cavuto dismisses the illegality of plan to send migrants to sanctuary cities because Trump is “at wits end”

Fox host pushes Trump's position on border wall funding: “Let's get together and secure the border”

Fox News dominates coverage of caged migrants in El Paso with anti-immigrant fearmongering, pro-government spin, and calls for stricter laws