The news of pepper spray and tear gas being used to turn away people attempting to enter the U.S. illegally has had liberals and the media (pardon the redundancy) sounding a human rights alarm exclusive to the Trump administration. Here are just a few examples:
The tear-gassing of women and children at the border is an atrocity. It’s a violation of human rights. And it is a grotesque betrayal of our founding promise, as a nation built by immigrants.
I’ve called for @UN inspectors on the border, and I reiterate that call today. https://t.co/k5mXSs0oFU
— Rep. Barbara Lee (@RepBarbaraLee) November 26, 2018
What happened over the weekend in the #SanYsidro Port of Entry is unprecedented & horrifying for the U.S. Pictures of children crying & running away from tear gas were devastating. Those crossing the border are fleeing extreme violence & poverty, situations out of their control.
— José E. Serrano (@RepJoseSerrano) November 26, 2018
Tear gassing children who’ve arrived at our border to seek asylum is simply inhumane. There is a process in place to apply for asylum and the President and his administration know it. https://t.co/jd8cxTW6tP
— Ben Ray Lujan (@repbenraylujan) November 27, 2018
Trump’s unprecedented gassing of innocent children across Mexico’s border was a lawless act of war and a cruel violation of human rights — all provoked by Trump’s own earlier violations of federal asylum law and of federal court orders enforcing that law. Where will he stop?
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) November 27, 2018
Trump says attacks prompted border agents to tear-gas migrants. Photos showed unarmed women and children running from the gas https://t.co/l3DnniL9Sr
— Bloomberg (@business) November 27, 2018
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This mother caught in a photo fleeing tear gas at the US-Mexico border with her kids says she thought they were going to die. pic.twitter.com/tUkDdQptYo
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) November 27, 2018
However, as we’ve told you in the past days, the liberal narrative took a hit when it was reported that border patrol agents used pepper spray against rock-throwing migrants in 2013 when Obama was president.
As it turns out, according to the Washington Times, tear gas was also used at the border during Obama’s presidency — many times:
Tear gas used once a month at border under Obama https://t.co/KuOAL7DTVQ pic.twitter.com/OqRWZn1ne2
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) November 27, 2018
From the Washington Times:
The same tear-gas agent that the Trump administration is taking heat for deploying against a border mob this weekend is actually used fairly frequently — including more than once a month during the later years of President Barack Obama’s administration, according to Homeland Security data.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has used 2-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile, or CS, since 2010, and deployed it 26 times in fiscal 2012 and 27 times in 2013. The use dropped after that, but was still deployed three times in 2016, Mr. Obama’s final full year in office.
[…]
Border authorities also use another agent, pepper spray, frequently — including a decade-high record of 151 instances in 2013, also under Mr. Obama.
Is anybody surprised that wasn’t a much bigger story in the media a few years ago?
Sweet Jesus have our just-like-firefighters embarrassed themselves yet again https://t.co/TsOfNcuQsc pic.twitter.com/1A2akh8xM5
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) November 27, 2018
WHO GAVE THE ORDER @brianschatz? https://t.co/hLan04QmMd
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) November 27, 2018
Sen. Schatz didn’t seem to be asking “who gave the order” back then. Go figure!
Crimes against humanity used to not get much coverage apparently. https://t.co/PcZOOajLMH
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) November 27, 2018
I'm SHOCKED it wasn't reported on before. SHOCKED, I tell you. https://t.co/gMytiiwpqx
— Krystle Schoonveld (@TarheelKrystle) November 27, 2018
SHOCKING that there were no hysterics when Obama was protecting the border. https://t.co/A1Ikf9YUEc
— Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) November 27, 2018
The fact journalists did not know this fact is a terrible stain on their reputation. https://t.co/v9tuf2b1Eu
— Pradheep J. Shanker, M.D., M.S. (@Neoavatara) November 27, 2018
At this point that reputation has a LOT of stains on it.
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