Vermont Senator Peter Welch, a Democrat, went on television Sunday and said something that probably made half his caucus choke on their organic kombucha. As USA Journal reported, Welch delivered twelve words that essentially conceded the entire border debate to the other team.
"The fact is that we have a secure border. President Trump was right, Democrats were wrong on that."
That is a sitting Democratic senator saying that. Out loud. On camera. Not in a leaked private conversation, not in a memoir published after retirement, but right there on national television where everyone including the Squad could hear him.
Welch also noted there is "broad bipartisan support" for deporting violent criminals, which is one of those statements that sounds completely unremarkable until you remember that his party spent years treating ICE like a rogue paramilitary organization and passing sanctuary city laws specifically designed to keep federal immigration enforcement from doing its job.
Let us take a brief stroll down memory lane. Democrats called the border wall a "medieval solution." They compared ICE agents to storm troopers. Blue cities across the country passed ordinances to obstruct deportation efforts. The entire 2020 campaign was built around dismantling Trump's border apparatus. Then Biden won, they got exactly what they wanted, and the border situation deteriorated so badly it became one of the defining reasons they got steamrolled in 2024.
So now here comes Peter Welch, the guy from Vermont of all places, admitting the obvious. You have to give the man some credit. Saying "Trump was right" in today's Democratic Party is like wearing a rival team's jersey into the home stadium. He is not getting invited to any progressive fundraisers for a while.
Social media had a field day. One commenter wrote, "Democrats weren't 'wrong', they were complicit! None of this was by accident." Another called Welch "the last honest Democrat in Washington (not counting Fetterman)."
That second comment is funny but it also highlights how rare this kind of admission is. The fact that one Democratic senator acknowledging reality qualifies as breaking news tells you everything about where that party has been on immigration for the last several years.
Welch deserves a nod for saying it. It takes a certain amount of spine to contradict your own party's orthodoxy, especially when the activist wing considers borders themselves a form of oppression. But an admission is not the same as accountability. Catch and release policies did not materialize out of thin air. Sanctuary ordinances did not pass themselves. These were deliberate choices made by elected officials who prioritized ideology over the safety of the communities they were supposed to be serving.
One senator saying the quiet part out loud does not undo years of policy decisions that produced the mess Trump had to clean up. But hey, it is a start. Welcome to the party, Senator Welch. The rest of your colleagues can join whenever they are ready.
Read more conservative news commentary at: USA Journal News
