Fox Host Confronts Republican With Poll Showing Voters Blame GOP for Border

Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo pressed Republican Representative Eric Burlison on a new poll showing that a majority of voters hold former President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers accountable for the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border.

In a Fox News poll of 1,105 registered voters conducted between August 9 and 12, 87 percent said that the situation at the southern border is an emergency or a major problem. That's up 6 percent from February when 81 percent of voters said that.

Most voters blamed the Biden administration's "lack of enforcement" for the situation, with 71 percent placing a great deal or some blame on the current administration. However, a clear majority also holds former President Trump's administration and Senate Republicans responsible, with at least 57 percent assigning a great deal or some.

The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

On Friday's episode of Mornings with Maria, Bartiromo recited the poll's findings and then asked Burlison, "What do you say to these polls that also blame you and the Republicans for blocking legislation, obviously referring to that Senate deal."

Burlison, a Missouri Republican, referred to the $118 billion bipartisan border bill earlier this year as "just painting a whitewash over the problem, it wasn't really fixing the problem, it was just going to absolve the first 5,000 immigrants that were going to come across the border."

Several lawmakers have refuted this claim, such as Republican Senator James Lankford who wrote in a social media post at the time, "The emergency authority is not designed to let 5,000 people in, it is designed to close the border and turn 5,000 people around."

The bill sought to establish tougher migration rules, fund an increase in ICE detention capacity, fast-track asylum cases but have stricter requirements, and provide funding to hire more Border Patrol agents, among other initiatives.

Burlison continued by sharing anecdotal stories about criminal activity and fentanyl poisoning related to border crossings during the Biden administration but didn't directly answer the question.

Bartiromo further pressed him again, saying, "Right, but what I'm asking you, is what do you say to these polls that say voters also blame you and your colleagues?"

"I'll say it again, the bill that we were faced with was only going to ignore... the numbers, you don't fix a situation by erasing the first few data entries," he replied.

Burlison told Newsweek in an email Friday evening, "It's not surprising that people are blaming Republicans because that is who the corporate media and the White House have been blaming."

The congressman added: "But the only border bill we should be talking about right now is H.R 2, which actually passed the House last year. That bill, unlike the fake Senate border security bill that [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer couldn't even get all Senate Democrats to support, contains the needed reforms to secure the border and prevent the Biden/Harris administration from ignoring the law and facilitating an invasion of our country. It's been sitting on Senator Schumer's desk for 463 days and counting. The ball is in their court, and the Democrats own this crisis. They created it."

Immigration and border security are expected to play a big role in the upcoming presidential, Senate, and House elections this November. The Fox News poll found immigration to be tied in second place with abortion, at 14 percent, as the most important issue to voters this election. The survey found that 38 percent of voters found the economy as the most important issue.

Updated 08/16/24, 9:40 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to include Burlison's comment.

Correction 08/20/24, 3:22 p.m. ET: This article has been corrected to refer to Maria Bartiromo as a Fox Business host, not a Fox News host.