CNN's Cuomo Boosts Immigration Reformers, Demeans Opponents
Well that's a loaded comparison. On Wednesday's New Day, CNN's Chris Cuomo boosted immigration reform as a policy of "let's bring in our human potential" while marginalizing opponents as simply saying "let's find a way to get them out."
Cuomo's simplistic analysis came during his interview with Facebook
founder Mark Zuckerberg. Cuomo is the brother of New York's current
Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo and his father was the state's former
Democratic governor Mario Cuomo, so perhaps his immigration take mirrors
the Democratic family slant.
[Video below. Audio here.]
"What would be your advice to the people in D.C. who are trying to
balance these two almost diametrically-opposed positions?" Cuomo had
asked Zuckerberg. He then explained the two positions: "One is
immigration policy is about what you're talking about. Let's bring in
our human potential. And the other one is, let's find a way to get them
out."
It surely echoes Cuomo's obnoxious take
on immigration reform opponents from back in 2008. "Everybody wants to
put up a big wall and then find who's not supposed to be here and throw them over that wall," he insisted on ABC's Good Morning America.
Below is a transcript of the segment, which aired on New Day on August 21 at 6:23 a.m. EDT:
CHRIS CUOMO: So when not trying to connect the world to the internet,
you have to run one of the biggest companies and when you want a
distraction from that, you've decided to take on the easy task of
immigration policy in the United States. Why are you wading into those waters?
MARK ZUCKERBERG: When we were first talking about doing this, a lot of
people actually were worried that it was going to be a problem for
Facebook, right? And I just decided, I think that this is too important
of an issue for the country. I mean , there are 11 million undocumented
people who came here to work hard and contribute to the country. And I'm
-- you know, it's – I don't think it's quite as polarized as people
always say.
CUOMO: What would be your advice to the people in D.C. who are trying
to balance these two almost diametrically-opposed positions? One is
immigration policy is about what you're talking about. Let's bring in
our human potential. And the other one is, let's find a way to get them
out. How, if you had to enter that, this is your new team, you have to
make these Democrats and Republicans come together, what advice do you
think you'd have that's not going on down there now?
ZUCKERBERG: Well, it's – I can't really tell anyone how to legislate.
Right? I mean, that's – everyone understands this stuff way better than I
do. So, you know, my goal in this is just to try to help support folks
who care deeply about getting this done, on both sides, and hopefully we
can make a difference.
CUOMO: In terms of the politics of it, you think it's just important enough where you're going to do it anyway?
ZUCKERBERG: Yes. I mean, I think that there are some things in life
that if you believe that it's such a big problem, you just stick your
neck out and try to do it, right? And I mean, a lot of people think that
it's going to be really challenging to connect 5 billion people, too.
It is, but I think it's one of the biggest problems of my generation to
get everyone in the world to have Internet access. And when, similarly,
you know, 11 million undocumented people – that's a lot of people whose
lives we can improve and make the country stronger.
