Right-wing pundit and immigration hawk Ann Coulter said she could vote and perhaps even work for democratic socialist Bernie Sanders if he stuck to his "original position" on U.S. border policy.
Sanders, the independent senator for Vermont and a candidate in the Democratic primary for the party's 2020 presidential nomination, is liberal on many immigration issues but is staunchly opposed to open borders, despite the policy's popularity on the left.
"If he went back to his original position, which is the pro blue-collar position—I mean, it totally makes sense with him," Coulter said in an appearance on PBS's Firing Line with Margaret Hoover on Wednesday night.
"If he went back to that position, I'd vote for him, I might work for him. I don't care about the rest of the socialist stuff. Just, can we do something for ordinary Americans?"
Coulter was a supporter of President Donald Trump, who is attempting to build a wall all along America's southern border to keep undocumented migrants out, but believes he is not living up to the hardline promises of his campaign, particularly on immigration.
"If only, oh my gosh, if only he governed 1 percent of the way he campaigned," Coulter told Firing Line about Trump's presidential performance so far.
According to his campaign website, Sanders wants to expand DACA and DAPA, restructure ICE, and dismantle "cruel and inhumane" deportation programs and detention centers.
But at a town hall event in Iowa in early April, Sanders pushed back when a voter suggested he supported opening America's borders.
"I think what we need is comprehensive immigration reform… You open the borders, my god, there's a lot of poverty in this world, and you're going to have people from all over the world. And I don't think that's something that we can do at this point. Can't do it," Sanders said.
It echoed comments he made during the 2016 Democratic primary in which he also stood. Sanders told Vox back in a 2015 interview that open borders is a right-wing policy backed by billionaire Republican donors the Koch brothers.
"That's a right-wing proposal, which says essentially there is no United States," Sanders said at the time. "It would make everybody in America poorer—you're doing away with the concept of a nation state, and I don't think there's any country in the world that believes in that.
"If you believe in a nation state or in a country called the United States or U.K. or Denmark or any other country, you have an obligation in my view to do everything we can to help poor people. What right-wing people in this country would love is an open-border policy.
"Bring in all kinds of people, work for $2 or $3 an hour, that would be great for them. I don't believe in that. I think we have to raise wages in this country, I think we have to do everything we can to create millions of jobs."
He referenced youth unemployment rates in America and asked: "You think we should open the borders and bring in a lot of low-wage workers, or do you think maybe we should try to get jobs for those kids?"
Sanders added: "I think from a moral responsibility we've got to work with the rest of the industrialized world to address the problems of international poverty, but you don't do that by making people in this country even poorer."
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Shane Croucher is a Senior Editor based in London, UK. He oversees the My Turn team. He has previously overseen ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
