“Most presidents have used Oval Office addresses for noble purposes. This president just used the backdrop of the Oval Office to manufacture a crisis, stoke fear, and divert attention from the turmoil in his administration.”

— Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer

The President is “manufacturing a crisis.”

— Speaker Nancy Pelosi

It was the phrase of the moment. And one Democrat after another came forward to use the same phrase.

The president had addressed the nation months ago and said there was a “humanitarian crisis” at the border. He said, in fact, this:

This is a humanitarian crisis, a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul…. Women and children are the biggest victims by far of our broken system. This is the tragic reality of illegal immigration on our southern border. This is the cycle of human suffering that I am determined to end.… The only thing that is immoral is for the politicians to do nothing and continue to allow more innocent people to be so horribly victimized.

The Democrats’ response? They did nothing. There was no such thing as a crisis at the border, they said.

The border crisis was a fantasy all made up by President Trump. It was a “manufactured crisis.” And once the President vanished from television screens after his address to the nation, there were Senator Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi standing behind their own podium as Schumer insisted the Trump speech’s intention was not to discuss a real crisis but rather to “manufacture a crisis.”

They weren’t alone among their fellow Democrats. Here is a montage of comments put together by Tucker Carlson that goes like this:

Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona: “This is a manufactured crisis, and a crisis that is manufactured by the Trump administration.”

New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “Manufactured crisis.”

Virginia Senator Tim Kaine: “What the president is doing is manufacturing a crisis.”

Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Trump had created an “artificial crisis.”

Mediaite reported this of California Senator Kamala Harris, also a presidential candidate:

Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) says President Donald Trump is pushing a manufactured crisis with all of his recent talking points over illegal immigration and border security.

There was this over at Breitbart, with a report on Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro:

Wednesday on CNN’s “New Day,” former Obama administration Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination Julian Castro said the Trump’s administration’s declaration of a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico Border was “BS.”

Over at the Washington Examiner was this from presidential candidate and Senator Elizabeth Warren:

In just March of this year, Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts, said on social media: “A fake crisis at the border is fear-mongering of the worst kind — and we’re not falling for it. I voted to terminate the president’s ridiculous ‘national emergency.’”

Democratic National Chairman Tom Perez was crystal clear on the subject:

“This whole border security crisis… it really, I believe, is a manufactured crisis,” he said, adding that it’s distracting from issues like health care and education.

On… and on and on they went. And they collectively refused to do a damn thing to solve the crisis. Now? Suddenly?

A photograph goes viral. This one. It is tragic. There is a Salvadoran named Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his almost two-year-old daughter Valeria. The New York Times, which put the photo on the front page, started its report this way:

The father and daughter lie face down in the muddy water along the banks of the Rio Grande, her tiny head tucked inside his T-shirt, an arm draped over his neck.

They drowned.

If this is not a grade-A example of the humanitarian crisis that Trump described in his Oval Office address, I don’t know what is.

Let’s be blunt. All these Democratic politicians played politics with border security — and as a direct result this father and his child are now dead.

Yesterday, Fox News reported this of a thoroughly shamed Pelosi:

Pelosi reverses on border bill, plans vote on Senate version after GOP pressure

Said the Speaker:

“In order to get resources to the children fastest, we will reluctantly pass the Senate bill. As we pass the Senate bill, we will do so with a Battle Cry as to how we go forward to protect children in a way that truly honors their dignity and worth.”

Yet amazingly, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her fellow House progressives were more than willing to allow the death toll and cruel treatment of kids to keep rolling along. AOC’s horrifying response? Said the Fox story:

“Under no circumstances should the House vote for a McConnell-only bill w/ no negotiation with Democrats. Hell no,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., tweeted. “That’s an abdication of power we should refuse to accept. They will keep hurting kids if we do.”

“Keep hurting kids”??? Valeria Martínez Ramírez, 23 months old, is dead because Democrats ignored the President’s warning about an imminent humanitarian crisis at the border. They played a game, saying in chorus that there was no humanitarian crisis, it was all a “manufactured crisis.” Or in Julian Castro’s words, nothing more than “BS.”

As if this weren’t bad enough, now we learn that Ocasio-Cortez has been urging on the Wayfair workers who refuse to make the beds for the children detained after illegally crossing into the U.S. The result? With no beds, the kids are forced to sleep on cold concrete floors.

Ahhhh, progressive compassion in action.

Make no mistake. Democrats — AOC and her fellow progressive politicians — are directly responsible for what happened along the muddy waters of the Rio Grande to Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his daughter Valeria. They are responsible for those kids sleeping on concrete floors instead of nice warm beds.

When the President of the United States took to the airwaves to state clearly and factually that what was happening at the border was a humanitarian crisis, that children needed help, all these people sat on their hands and played political games.

Disgraceful.