The media falsely accused President Donald Trump of referring to immigrants as “animals” on Wednesday.
The falsehood started because of a selectively edited clip posted by CSPAN that showed the president saying, “We have people coming into the country…You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people. These are animals.”
A number of journalists and media outlets fell for the idea that Trump was referring to all immigrants as “animals,” including MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, The New York Times, the Associated Press, CBS News and The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin.
However, the full video shows that Trump was specifically referring to members of MS-13, a violent gang whose motto is “rape, control, kill.”
WATCH:
VIDEO: “These aren’t people. These are animals,” says @POTUS. pic.twitter.com/PSuquD3jGn
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) May 16, 2018
A woman at the roundtable first brought up MS-13, asserting, “there can be an MS-13 member I know about, if they don’t reach a certain threshold I cannot tell ICE about them.”
Trump’s remarks about “bad…people” and “animals” were in direct response to her comments.
Nonetheless, there is a long list of people who fell for the misleading CSPAN clip.
A tough take down by the California governor after @realDonaldTrump calls people trying to get into the country “animals” not people. https://t.co/LPKiHPJaWZ
— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) May 16, 2018
The president just called immigrants “animals” today.
I think it probably wasn’t a good idea to elect this fellow.
Look! I just created 120 new Trump voters.— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) May 16, 2018
The New York Times insisted Trump was referring only to “those trying to breach the country’s borders.”
Trump lashed out at undocumented immigrants during a White House meeting, calling those trying to breach the country’s borders “animals” https://t.co/aQNeu29T6e pic.twitter.com/ogrFKaWyDZ
— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 16, 2018
Others accused Trump of using Hitler-esque rhetoric by dehumanizing “immigrants.”
You know who else inferred groups of people as “not people” and “animals” and deported them? Hitler. Donald Trump is a mother fucking Nazi https://t.co/YqWfoeVDu4
— David Leavitt (@David_Leavitt) May 16, 2018
Trump referred to those crossing US border illegally as “animals” and slammed California sanctuary state laws as “deadly.” https://t.co/TEdwe4Qevq
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 17, 2018
Trump strikes a Hitlerian note about immigrants: “You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people. These are animals.” pic.twitter.com/LpmgDMZ9RV
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 16, 2018
this is disgusting. and his evanglical sycophants will applaud his utter dehumanization of men, women and children https://t.co/qYbl6avzL1
— Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) May 16, 2018
Trump just verbatim referred to some immigrants as animals. “These aren’t people, these are animals.” Fuck everyone who voted for him & everyone who continues to appease him. pic.twitter.com/LCYU5ElPIJ
— Hannah Jane Parkinson (@ladyhaja) May 16, 2018
Never, ever forget this fact: Donald Trump reserves the word “animals” only for brown people. https://t.co/vXJRZyDUn0
— (@cristianafarias) May 16, 2018
“These aren’t people. These are animals.” President Trump used the harsh rhetoric to describe some undocumented immigrants during a California “sanctuary state” roundtable. https://t.co/mOwXilRtwE pic.twitter.com/eYC6XhtR57
— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 16, 2018
‘These aren’t people. These are animals.’ — The President of the United States on undocumented immigrants pic.twitter.com/0ECEqPOzu1
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) May 16, 2018