Who’s An Animal?

You likely are already aware of one of today’s dustups, the press’s false claim that President Trump described illegal immigrants as “animals.” This lie has cropped up in so many places that there is no point in trying to catalog them all, but the New York Times, as usual, was one of the malefactors:

That is a flat-out lie, as we will see momentarily. It was repeated by many others, including USA Today and the Washington Post. The Associated Press at least had the decency to delete its false tweet:

The New York Times, on the other hand, is sticking to its story.

As the AP ultimately admitted, President Trump referred to members of the vicious MS-13 gang as “animals.” The context was a White House round table on California’s sanctuary law and its impact on the federal government’s ability to deport violent criminals who are illegally present in the U.S. At the beginning of the discussion, President Trump framed it this way:

Each of you has bravely resisted California’s deadly and unconstitutional sanctuary state laws. You’ve gone through a lot, too, although it’s becoming quite popular what you’re doing. A law that forces the release of illegal immigrant criminals, drug dealers, gang members, and violent predators into your communities.

California’s law provides safe harbor to some of the most vicious and violent offenders on Earth, like MS-13 gang members putting innocent men, women, and children at the mercy of these sadistic criminals. But we’re moving them out of this country by the thousands. MS-13, we’re grabbing them by the thousands and we’re getting them out, Kevin.

The round table had nothing to do with illegal immigrants in general, or “those trying to breach the country’s borders” (the caravaners, I take it). This was the president’s reference to animals; again, he obviously was referring to MS-13 gang members:

SHERIFF MIMS: Thank you. There could be an MS-13 member I know about — if they don’t reach a certain threshold, I cannot tell ICE about it.

THE PRESIDENT: We have people coming into the country, or trying to come in — and we’re stopping a lot of them — but we’re taking people out of the country. You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people. These are animals. And we’re taking them out of the country at a level and at a rate that’s never happened before. And because of the weak laws, they come in fast, we get them, we release them, we get them again, we bring them out. It’s crazy.

Scarcely a day goes by without the news media lying about the president and his administration. No wonder trust in the press is at an all-time low. It should be.

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