CONGRESS/CRIME/ELECTION/GOP/ICE/IMMIGRATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “President Trump and congressional Republicans, who are eager to find an issue that can help minimize the losses they expect in the midterm elections, are leaning hard into crime, illegal immigration and public safety to paint a bleak picture of how the country would become less safe under a Democratic-controlled Congress. This week, they sought to put a face with that picture. The news that a missing Iowa college student, Mollie Tibbetts, had been found dead, and that a man the authorities said was an undocumented immigrant was charged with her murder, was seized upon by Republicans, who had already been sounding dire warnings about spreading violence and insecure borders. In messages and ads directed at voters — especially women, who are most motivated by concerns over personal safety, polling shows — Republicans say that if the Democrats are victorious in November, violent crime and drugs will become greater scourges, the MS-13 gang will run rampant, and communities will unravel. Republicans point to the sudden popularity on the left of the ‘Abolish ICE’ movement, which seeks to dismantle the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, as evidence of how Democrats would harm public safety. Republicans say they believe they have an advantage over Democrats on the issue of immigration when it is presented as a matter of personal security.”
–Jeremy W. Peters, “How Politics Took Over the Killing of Mollie Tibbetts,” The New York Times online, August 23, 2018