I mean, he’s not wrong. POTUS’s midterm strategy in his own words: “This will be an election of Kavanaugh, the caravan, law and order and common sense.”

He’s also not wrong when he says POTUS doesn’t have “intel.” Trump told reporters yesterday that they if they went into the caravan crowd in Mexico they’d find Middle Easterners and MS-13. Does he have proof of that, he was asked today? Why, no. “While we acknowledge there are vulnerabilities at both our northern and southern border, we do not see any evidence that ISIS or other Sunni terrorist groups are trying to infiltrate the southern US border,” a senior counterterrorism official told CNN when asked about those suspicious Middle Easterners.

But Trump’s broader recurring point about the caravan and immigration writ large is that the modern Democratic Party simply can’t be trusted to enforce the border, and that is true. Shep can grumble if he likes about the word “invasion” being used to describe a group of several thousand people intent on crossing the U.S. border, but the uncomfortable fact remains that it’s an increasingly mainstream view in the left-wing party that the U.S. should admit anyone from abroad who wants to come provided they have no history of violence. If foreigners can enter the country at will, in any numbers they choose, what should we call it?

I was interested to see these tweets last night from Dave Catanese, a reporter at U.S. News & World Report. He’s not a conservative as far as I know, but he does know American politics and is paying attention to the caravan.

It is *incumbent* for Dems to figure out their answer on how to handle this caravan heading toward the border.

I watched @RepCheri try to deflect to health care and oversight but that reflects a lack of answer.

Trump will demagogue but ignoring it could be worse politically.

— Dave Catanese (@davecatanese) October 23, 2018

Nonexistent? This is the dismissiveness of the immigration issue that caught Dems sleeping in ‘16.

And it’s why Trunp will hammer them for it.

1000s of people arrive at our border at once. Trump wants to militarize the border. What’s your plan? https://t.co/Nn6E7fyKt6

— Dave Catanese (@davecatanese) October 23, 2018

They don’t have a plan. Why would they? They don’t see it as a problem. Presumably neither does Shep. Let ’em in!

I was interested too to see Glenn Beck, who proposed greeting child migrants at the border in 2014 with soccer balls, chiming in today with a piece titled, “This is not a caravan, it’s an INVASION.”

By the time they reach the U.S. border you’ll only see two things on cable news:

1. Election polls and 2. The status at the border.

If the caravan is stopped in Mexico, this could actually help the GOP come Nov. 6. I mean, is there any greater example for why we need stricter border policies, or even a wall, after seeing all this play out? Mexican immigration officers were completely overwhelmed when the caravan first crossed into Mexico. They could only process about 600 people before the remaining 5,000-plus pushed through. Some on land while some waded across the water. If these invasion caravans are the new norm, do we have any choice but to build a wall?

There may be a second caravan on the way. Imagine how many there’ll be if the first were to be received into the U.S. with enthusiasm. Shep can cluck his tongue all he likes at America’s refusal to fling open its borders but this is serious business for Americans who want at least a little control over the situation when crowds of thousands of people show up demanding entry on asylum grounds. That’s a decent-sized town; there may be another decent-sized town right behind that one, and maybe more behind that. Democrats not only have no answers but, per Catanese, they don’t even want to engage the question. If Trump didn’t make it a midterm issue it’d be criminal political malpractice.

Here’s Shep followed by Mike Pompeo promising action.

Shep Smith responds to a Fox viewer who said Trump has special intel about the caravan: "No he doesn't. POTUS has politics." pic.twitter.com/Nxdfn7HbI2

— John Whitehouse (@existentialfish) October 23, 2018

.@SecPompeo: The U.S. has a message for those in the caravan—you will not be successful at getting into the United States illegally, no matter what. pic.twitter.com/TuNfY05CmP

— Department of State (@StateDept) October 23, 2018