Virginia Sen. Mark Warner (D) on Friday questioned the timing of a migrant caravan bound for the United States, which has swelled to more than 7,000 people just weeks ahead of the midterm elections.
Warner said he was asking the intelligence community to probe the caravan’s size and timing and whether any groups could benefit from its prominent ahead of the contentious November vote.
{mosads}”The timing of this caravan, much larger than anything we’ve seen before, I’ve asked and we’re trying to get the intelligence community to see, why now?” Warner said on CNN’s “New Day.” “Why at this moment in time? Who would this benefit if it’s suddenly in the news?”
“Are you suggesting that it was ginned up for political purposes?” asked anchor John Berman.
“All I’m saying is, we’ve never seen a caravan of this size,” Warner responded. “Usually there’s been smaller ones, that have been about safety. This one seems much, much larger, and at an unusual time.”
Berman pressed Warner on his remarks, asking if the senator had any “proof” the caravan had been organized for political reasons.
“I have no proof. I’m simply raising the question,” Warner said.
President Trump and Republicans have seized on the caravan to highlight their concerns about illegal immigration, an important issue for the conservative base, ahead of the midterms.
Trump has alleged that the caravan, still roughly 1,000 miles from the U.S. border and reportedly primarily made up of asylum applicants, is a national security threat. In a tweet, he made the claim that there were “criminals and unknown Middle Easterners” in the caravan.
Warner on Friday also slammed Trump for his response to a series of suspicious packages, some containing explosive devices, mailed to top Democratic Party figures, CNN, and other Trump critics.
“Trump doesn’t seem to realize that his words now as president really matter,” Warner said. “We have not seen him reach out to the potential victims of this plot… Instead, we’ve got him continuing to blame the media.”
Trump on Thursday said the media was partly to blame for political polarization and some of the “anger” in society.