Something President Trump said almost a year ago has taken on new life on the Left and with at least one Democrat candidate for president thanks to a video that leaves something out:
.@realDonaldTrump on people asking for asylum "These aren't people. These are animals." pic.twitter.com/pTKY08Obm2
— Mark Elliott (@markmobility) April 5, 2019
And that tweet caught fire quickly with some help from people like Chrissy Tiegen, Rosanna Arquette, Ana Navarro and 2020 Dem candidate Pete Buttigieg:
This is journalist, @TifaniRoberts comforting a small boy on the border. He was shot in the throat by Ortega’s thugs in Nicaragua. This little boy is seeking asylum in the United States. His name is William. Trump calls him “animal”. pic.twitter.com/avGe5mWctH
— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) April 6, 2019
This is Disgusting the only animal is you mr trump.
— Rosanna Arquette (@RoArquette) April 6, 2019
You do not refer to human beings as animals. You just don’t.
— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) April 6, 2019
Not surprisingly, there’s something they forgot to mention about what Trump said:
Now that guests on cable news networks and a presidential candidate are referring to these remarks as new, think it’s important to point out they were made in May 2018, not yesterday. Also, as Snopes pointed out then, Trump was referring to MS-13 membershttps://t.co/LOeAdRd3wx https://t.co/rqPiaa8dks
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) April 6, 2019
This tweet is going viral and it's not correct. Trump was not talking about asylum speakers at the time (this clip is from last May). The president's comments came in response to a California official's remarks on MS-13 gang members. https://t.co/KtmokemSTP https://t.co/frdZVF3YHn
— John Haltiwanger (@jchaltiwanger) April 6, 2019
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Trump’s “animals” remark was in reference to MS-13 gang members, but many didn’t want to hear that part.
Respectful disagree. We *shouldn't* just dropping things down the memory hole. Even if he did mean MS-13, it's awful even to mean it about criminals—that kind of thinking can lead to police overreach and brutality. Police have confused asylum-seekers for gang members.
— Elizabeth Picciuto (@epicciuto) April 6, 2019
Reporter Yashar Ali explained further:
That’s fine – but people are treating the remarks as new and they’re not. Additionally this clip is missing a lot of context. If all of the context is offered and people still believe there is an issue, like you, that’s understandable
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) April 6, 2019
But many just don’t want to hear anything about context:
I watched the entire segment on Cspan from 5/18. From trump to almost every person introduced around the room, they referred to migrants as “other” that they didn’t want in their town. MS-13 or not, they were all dehumanized. It was awful.
— C. Graziano (@artgraz) April 6, 2019
With the context btw it’s clear he’s referring to undocumented immigrants being deported en masse and not just MS-13
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) April 6, 2019
No he wasn’t https://t.co/4RWN1zSFQt
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) April 6, 2019
It's what his defenders said at the time. But it was during a discussion of immigration and sanctuary cities, and as he rambled on he mentioned MS-13. That was the excuse.
And of course being a member of MS-13 doesn't strip a person of their humanity and make them an animal. https://t.co/gUETxjTH9y
— Joshua Holland ? (@JoshuaHol) April 6, 2019
OK, not new: but even members of MS-18 are not animals. And we all know that he was tarring peaceful asylum seekers and other would-be immigrants from the South with violent gang-members. https://t.co/LoOTbSfQyE
— Jason Pontin (@jason_pontin) April 6, 2019
it was dog whistling under the guise of talking about MS-13.
His incoherent wandering from topic to topic is NOT just cognitive decline – it's intentionally shifting the locus of conversation to whistle to his base but maintain an out for denial.
— random facts girl. (@soychicka) April 6, 2019
Except he wasn’t referring to MS-13. Read the god damn transcript. Trump is making a broad generalization about all undocumented immigrants coming into the country. https://t.co/zQBsbIdZJp
— ResistTrump (@SphallSteve1245) April 6, 2019
I watched the entire segment on Cspan from 5/18. From trump to almost every person introduced around the room, they referred to migrants as “other” that they didn’t want in their town. MS-13 or not, they were all dehumanized. It was awful.
— C. Graziano (@artgraz) April 6, 2019
Dehumanizing ANYONE is not okay. Not now, not ever and certainly not from the POTUS.
I’m surprised you’d say this.
— Jonathan Kraus (@kraus_jonathan) April 6, 2019
Attention those claiming “he was talking specifically about MS-13” in this PARTICULAR comment as if that excuses the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES using this term to describe (horrible) human beings. It’s NOT the same as Joe Schmoe using a colloquial term re rapists/murderers. https://t.co/LMZvZetrLX
— Charles Gaba (@charles_gaba) April 6, 2019
At the time Trump made the above comments about MS-13, Nancy Pelosi, 2014 recipient of Planned Parenthood’s Margaret Sanger Award, reminded America that every human being has a “spark of divinity.”
It's amazing. There is a lot of context missing from that short video clip, but all you have to do is watch it and you know he's at least talking about people who have been deported, not asylum-seekers. Yet few are calling out Mark as the liar he is
— (((Aaron Worthing))) (@AaronWorthing) April 6, 2019
It all reminds me of the Covington Catholic incident. The original video was missing context, but it was clear from the start the old man was intentionally getting into the young kid's face, and probably even committed assault. Yet the prejudice was so thick ppl couldn't see it
— (((Aaron Worthing))) (@AaronWorthing) April 6, 2019
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