Trump: Democratic voters will support Republicans because of ICE criticism

President Trump on Monday said some Democratic voters will defect to the Republican Party because of Democrats’ growing criticism of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Many Democrats are deeply concerned about the fact that their “leadership” wants to denounce and abandon the great men and women of ICE, thereby declaring war on Law & Order. These people will be voting for Republicans in November and, in many cases, joining the Republican Party!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2018

The president has seized on calls from some Democrats, including many said to be eyeing 2020 White House bids, to abolish ICE and restart a similar agency from scratch amid heated pushback to Trump’s immigration policies.

Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have called for ICE to be eliminated, while Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said the agency should be “critically re-examined,” and possibly started anew.

{mosads}Other Democrats have been less committal, saying only that they believe ICE’s methods should be examined and that Trump’s immigration policies should be undone.

The intense Democratic criticism of ICE comes in the wake of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, which led to the separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents.

Trump suggested in an interview aired Sunday that the issue will ultimately harm Democrats.

The official White House Twitter account earlier Monday targeted Harris and Warren over their comments about ICE, and accused them of supporting criminals.

Harris hit back, saying she spent much of her career as a prosecutor going after gang members and transnational criminals.

A Quinnipiac University Poll released Monday showed Democrats with a 9-point lead over Republicans in the generic ballot ahead of the November midterms.