Conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly is unloading on President Obama for what she sees as a “dereliction of duty” in failing to protect Americans from the threat of the Ebola virus, going so far as to blame him for the Texas nurse now battling the disease and saying this is the worst moment of his presidency.
Schalfly is the president of Eagle Forum and spearheaded the fight to to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and 1980s. She is also a syndicated columnist. Her latest book is “Who Killed the American Family?”
Over the weekend, 26-year-old nurse Nina Pham was diagnosed with Ebola after tending to now-deceased Ebola patient Thomas Duncan, despite wearing protective gear.
President Obama is under increasing pressure to ban flights to and from west Africa until the crisis is under control, but the president and other officials are resisting those demands. Schlafly thinks she knows why.
“Obama wants to be a citizen of the world and he acts like he wants to be nicer to every other country than to the United States. He doesn’t want to do anything that acts unilaterally for the United States. I think it’s just an outrage. I think of all the things he’s done, this is the worst,” said Schlafly, who elaborated on what she sees as the ramifications of Obama famously declaring himself a “citizen of the world ” in 2008.
“For example, he denies that the United States is an exceptional country, and we are exceptional. We’ve built the greatest prosperity and the greatest freedom in the history of the world. That’s why everybody wants to come here. That’s so obvious,” she said.
“[Obama] wants all these UN treaties, these bureaucratic busybodies to direct our life. Everything he’s doing is for the globalist concern. It’s not for America,” said Schlafly.
Schlafly has long argued that our immigration policies are inviting economic ruin and national security risks into the U.S. Now she says the threat of disease from Ebola, enterovirus and tuberculosis should make border security an even more obvious priority.
“I think it does add severely to our problem. The American people are really outraged about Obama letting these people into our country. He doesn’t have to let them in,” said Schlafly, saying the Ebola problem on American soil is one of our own creation.
“Years ago, we set up Ellis Island off of New York City so that people who wanted to get into our country could be retained there until we found out they were disease-free and able to support themselves and otherwise OK to come in. Now they just let them all in and say, ‘Well, that’s out problem,’ But it wasn’t our problem until Obama made it our problem,” said Schlafly.
For Schlafly, the initial U.S. approach should be fairly obvious.
“I think the best and simplest and fastest way is to say we will not accept anybody who’s coming from those countries in west Africa that are so badly infected. We just don’t let them get off the plane,” she said.
Political momentum for “comprehensive immigration reform” stalled considerably after a wave of unaccompanied minors flooded America’s southern border this past summer. Schlafly believes the additional concern over diseases coming from Africa and Central America should be the end of any questions over border security, but she isn’t sure that’s the case.
“Well, I hope so, but the scuttlebutt was (Obama) was just going to postpone it until after the election and then do it by executive order. Of course, the Constitution gives immigration power to the Congress. It doesn’t give it to the president,” said Schlafly.
Republicans were largely split over the Senate version of immigration reform for the bulk of the current Congress. Just prior to the summer recess, however, House Republicans passed what many consider to be tough border control legislation that was ignored in the Senate.
GOP leaders and many immigration activists contend the party got the message after the summer border crisis and is no longer interested in the comprehensive approach. Schlafly isn’t so sure.
“The Republicans are still floundering around, not sure what they want to do. We took a survey of all the polls that these candidates seem to believe in. They show it’s really suicide for the Republican Party if we don’t close down our borders and don’t stop any talk of amnesty,” said Schlafly.
She says any way you look at it, granting legal status to illegal immigrants and failing to really secure our borders is inviting disaster.
“Amnesty would not only kill the Republican Party, it would damage our country immensely. We bring in all these people who want to take jobs away from our native Americans. Now, of course, we know it’s bringing in disease too,” said Schlafly.