The Patriot Post® · Maggie Hassan Arrives Late to the Party
By Peter Lemiska
New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan is one of several Democrat lawmakers who seem to have suddenly become aware of the chaos on our southern border, which was spawned by Joe Biden’s immigration policies. Those policies have resulted in more than two million illegal border crossings and a massive increase in illegal drugs swamping our cities and towns.
To many, Hassan and the other converts seem sincere in their new commitment to secure our borders. The senator has even done something that Biden has deftly avoided. She’s actually visited the border — allegedly three times in recent weeks — to witness firsthand the catastrophe that continues to worsen under Biden’s policies.
She’s gone so far as to call for border walls to help slow the tidal wave. She recently wrote, “We need to make more investments in personnel, technology, and physical infrastructure to secure our border.” But critics wonder why she said nothing about “physical infrastructure” on January 20, 2021, when Biden halted construction of the border wall through executive order. Instead, on that date, she was celebrating the election of Kamala Harris, tweeting a photo of herself and the new vice president, with this caption, “Proud to call her Madam Vice President.”
Skeptics wonder why she said nothing in February 2021, when Biden was implementing other polices that facilitated illegal border crossings, including “catch and release.” Throughout Biden’s administration, there have been unambiguous signs of a massive problem on our southern border. In mid-September 2021, Reuters, The New York Times, CNN, ABC, and Fox News were reporting on an estimated 15,000 illegal migrants huddled under squalid conditions beneath the Del Rio, Texas, bridge. Hassan said nothing.
By the end of the month, the encampment and all 15,000 migrants were gone. A small minority returned home, but the majority were simply spirited away. In order to make that happen, all vestiges of our screening process had to be eliminated. The administration simply herded them, unvetted, onto buses, and transported them to various communities throughout the country. During all of this, Maggie Hassan said nothing.
Though she had nothing to say on illegal immigration, she had a lot of other things to talk about during the Del Rio catastrophe. Her Twitter account reveals daily musings on issues like National Lobster Day, Hispanic Heritage Month, Manchester’s Glendi Greek Festival, and various groundbreaking ceremonies. Of course, there were the perfunctory tributes to vets, POWs, and police, but most of her comments were not much more than progressive pablum to satisfy the hunger of her left-leaning supporters. She tweeted about Planned Parenthood, Roe v. Wade and the right to choose, climate change, renewable energy, and defending the legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And ironically, while Biden ignores his constitutional responsibility to enforce the laws of our nation, Hassan wrote this on September 17: “The U.S. Constitution was signed on this day in 1787. 234 years later, we celebrate the guiding principles that our founding fathers outlined for us and recommit to ensuring that all Americans are afforded the same liberties.”
But nowhere during that two-week period was there any mention of the border chaos or the nightmare under the Del Rio bridge.
In fact, her first reference to the problem on our southern border came on March 14, 2022, with just a few months to go before the next election. That’s when she apparently learned what others have known all along. It was on that date that she tweeted this: “The vast majority of drugs flowing into NH originate outside our country — & cross into the U.S. at our southern border.”
Last year, a poll by St. Anselm’s College indicated that only 39% of Granite Staters believe Hassan deserves reelection. The outlook for her reelection can’t be any better today.
Some of her progressive supporters were outraged over her recent calls to control our border, but they can stop hyperventilating. It’s clear that she’s just doing what so many other opportunistic politicians do when they’re facing a tough election. Her flirtation with a rational border policy is just a façade. Reasonable and rational voters see through it. If enough of them go to the polls in November, calculating and manipulative politicians like Maggie Hassan and the others who arrived late to the party will be replaced by leaders who truly believe in national sovereignty and who can begin to restore all the American values lost during the Biden administration.