Gov. Scott Walker (Wis.), a 2016 GOP presidential contender, is walking back talk of building a wall on the U.S.-Canada border, days after calling it a “legitimate issue.”
“I’ve never talked about a wall at the north, I’m certainly not now. That’s just what happens when things get run amok,” Walker said Tuesday on Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom.”
{mosads}”This is just a joke in terms of how people react to things,” Walker added. “I’ve said for some time that we need to secure the southern border. I’ve talked about the infrastructure, the personnel and the technology needed there. I’ve talked about enforcing the laws.”
During an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, the Wisconsin governor suggested he would be open to building the wall.
“That is a legitimate issue for us to look at,” Walker said during the interview. In another part, when asked about the northern border, he said, “I think we need to secure borders in general.”
Walker’s comment, taken as suggesting he supported building a wall along the Canadian border, was mocked by some GOP rivals.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) called it “a pretty dumb idea.”
Walker reiterated on Monday, as well as in another interview on Fox Business, that he had been approached by supporters in New Hampshire who asked about securing the northern border.