In Context: Tammy Baldwin's CNN interview on immigration

Repeatedly in interviews, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kevin Nicholson urges listeners to Google "Tammy Baldwin, immigration and CNN" and then watch an interview in which Baldwin, the Wisconsin Democrat, answers questions about immigration.

Nicholson faces Leah Vukmir in the GOP primary on Aug. 14, 2018 for the right to take on Baldwin, a first-term incumbent, on Nov. 6, 2018.

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As one example, Nicholson made the Google plea in an interview on July 24, 2018 with conservative Wisconsin radio talk show host Vicki McKenna. He said Baldwin in the CNN interview "shows she hasn’t thought about this stuff critically at all."

Did Baldwin really come across badly enough for Nicholson to keep citing the interview more than a month after the fact?

Time for In Context, our periodic feature that fleshes out remarks that get attention.

In Context: Nicholson on military service as "conservative value" and questioning Democratic veterans' "cognitive thought process."

Here was the exchange between Baldwin and CNN host Brooke Baldwin on June 20, 2018. At the time, the separation of children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border was in the news:

Brooke Baldwin: But here's a question for Democrats, because you hear the president now, on a lot of topics and this one included, looking back to previous administrations, "Well, they should have done more," right? And so, as so many people in this country are certainly outraged by the cages and the thermal blankets and the facilities housing these kids, they were all there in 2014 under President Obama, and my question to you, Senator Baldwin, is, did you speak up against them then?

Tammy Baldwin: You know, on this issue that we get into a moment where we’re making progress and then when it stalls, we turn around. I think we all need to continue to be focused on it and press it through. The American people need confidence that we can solve problems. Nobody believes that we have an immigration system that works. It is broken. It needs fixing. But we've just got to resolve to do that.

Brooke Baldwin: But were you worried about it then? Did you raise your voice under the Obama administration?

Tammy Baldwin: You know, in numbers of cases, usually, I remember a constituent who was in detention at the border, arguably very inappropriately, and we raised our voice in that instance and many others. But that's — we've got to do this now in unison. It's not enough to do it case by case, or a senator or House member by House member. We've got to resolve to fix this issue."