'Pretty depraved': Journalists seem upset by Trump's tweet blaming Democrat policies for migrant deaths

First, let’s make a couple of things clear. For one, the president has no filter when he tweets, which is refreshing in some ways, but other days you wish he had a committee writing and approving his social media posts.

And second, we shouldn’t forget that migrants died in Border Patrol custody during the Obama administration, but the press didn’t seem nearly as interested then, just like nobody thought keeping kids in cages was a news story from 2009 to 2017.

Trump wasn’t playing games Saturday when he tweeted about the border wall and the recent deaths of two children in Border Patrol custody.

Any deaths of children or others at the Border are strictly the fault of the Democrats and their pathetic immigration policies that allow people to make the long trek thinking they can enter our country illegally. They can’t. If we had a Wall, they wouldn’t even try! The two…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 29, 2018

…children in question were very sick before they were given over to Border Patrol. The father of the young girl said it was not their fault, he hadn’t given her water in days. Border Patrol needs the Wall and it will all end. They are working so hard & getting so little credit!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 29, 2018

Not surprisingly, the president’s tweets enraged the resistance, but they also seemed to put some journalists on the defensive. Washington Post reporter and CNN analyst Josh Dawsey was waiting for … something else.

Maybe it’s time to go through journalists’ timelines like Cameron Gray did with California House members to see how many tweeted their condolences to the family of Cpl. Ronil Singh, who was shot and killed by an illegal immigrant in the sanctuary state of California. (OK, we searched Dawsey’s timeline … maybe you can find something.)

CNN’s Ryan Struyk disputed Trump’s claim that 7-year-old Jakelin Caan Maquin hadn’t been given water by her father in days — by quoting a statement written by the attorneys in El Paso, Texas representing her family.

"Jakelin's father took care of Jakelin — made sure she was fed and had sufficient water," the statement said. "She had not suffered from a lack of water or food prior to approaching the border." https://t.co/4oHL3wMYY6 https://t.co/2jfJbxLByz

— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) December 29, 2018

Oh. A quote from a statement from the father's lawyers? No reason for him to cover his own ass. ?Ryan: you're a young man. Don't piss away your career with this hacky shite. Its too late for your MSM partisan elders especially those @CNN. Think long term… or learn to code.

— Beekman Cruger ?? (@BeekmanCruger) December 29, 2018

The same story linked in the tweet also quotes Jakelin’s father as saying he had “no complaints” about her treatment while in custody.

Here’s Maggie Haberman of The New York Times:

This is his first comment on the death of the two young children. https://t.co/tCQ5cMmnUC

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) December 29, 2018

Sam Stein of The Daily Beast and MSNBC:

This is pretty depraved but also an amazing window into his mind. It’s not that the government bureaucracy has failed or the system is overwhelmed and needs to be changed. It’s that his opponents are to blame. https://t.co/mJqhkUXFnC

— Sam Stein (@samstein) December 29, 2018

And Nancy Pelosi’s opponents are to blame for how many deaths due to the GOP tax cuts and the repeal of net neutrality?

David Mack of BuzzFeed News:

this feels like a new low https://t.co/GD6bCHCeIV

— David Mack (@davidmackau) December 29, 2018

TIME’s Alana Abramson:

This is a top priority for Dems who now have the power to subpoena DHS, HHS, et al. We will see if the testimony in a public hearing matches this tweet soon enough…. https://t.co/mbnNnP6et9

— Alana Abramson (@aabramson) December 29, 2018

MSNBC analyst and TIME contributor Elise Jordan:

Trump’s casual cruelty is always breathtaking. We can’t become immune to it. https://t.co/u3rPsMVSMq

— Elise Jordan (@Elise_Jordan) December 29, 2018

And as we know, the Daily Beast’s Justin Miller has called Border Patrol detention facilities “concentration camps.”

We’re not saying the president is right to politicize the deaths of two children — we’d rather he hadn’t — but reporters didn’t seem to have a problem with Democrats doing the same. (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez retweeted an abject lie — that Jakelin had died alone, in a holding cell — from former Bernie Sanders Press Secretary, Erika Andiola, but didn’t seem to get any flak from the press. Sure, she was completely wrong, but compassionate.)

And again, where are all the sympathetic tweets for Cpl. Singh? (We’re not seeing his name pop up in any of their timelines, just like with so many Democrat lawmakers in California … we looked.)

Singh had an infant son … does that count for any sympathy points? A tweet?

Related:

CNN unravels political narrative of 7 year old immigrant dying, Democrats hardest hit https://t.co/RGUer7Y0iG pic.twitter.com/NtXrZ9RACs

— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) December 15, 2018