President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ policy of separating thousands of children from their border-crossing parents has sent the nation into crisis mode—but you wouldn’t know that from Trump’s tweets, as he’s still trying to blame his policy on Democrats. From the Washington Post:
“This is all the Democrats’ doing,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.” He claimed that a change in law is needed to end the separations that have been heavily documented on television in recent days.
…
Trump and others in the administration have falsely blamed the separations on a law the president claims was written by Democrats. But the separations instead largely stem from a “zero-tolerance” policy announced with fanfare last month by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Gidley isn’t the only White House flack trying to shift blame. Kellyanne Conway told Meet the Press that the fault lay at the feet of congress, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani told Face the Nation that it’s because of Jeff Sessions giving the president bad advice, and Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen is actively trying to convince people that the policy doesn’t exist at all. AT LEAST GET YOUR LIES STRAIGHT, DUMMIES.
We do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period.
— Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen (@SecNielsen) June 17, 2018
In an opinion piece for WaPo, former First Lady Laura Bush called Trump and Sessions’ child separation policy “cruel” and “inhumane.”
Meanwhile First Lady Melania Trump’s press secretary issued the following statement:
“Mrs. Trump hates to see children separated from their families and hopes both sides of the aisle can finally come together to achieve successful immigration reform. She believes we need to be a country that follows all laws, but also a country that governs with heart.”
Complicity? Yes. Also throwing some shade at her husband with that last sentence? Yes.
The head of the United Nation’s human rights organization is comparing Trump’s family separation policy to child abuse… which it clearly, clearly is.
Leading Republicans—finally recognizing that putting children in prison camps isn’t a great look ahead of midterm elections—are pushing Trump and Sessions to reverse their cruel policy.
Democratic lawmakers toured a crowded Border Patrol facility to find the “grim sight” of weeping parents whose children had been taken away. The Dems included Senator Ron Wyden who was also at an Oregon federal prison this weekend to criticize the government for holding 123 asylum seekers since mid-May.
Here are just a few of the thousands of tweets from outraged Americans:
My mother’s father was in Auschwitz, her mother was in the Warsaw Ghetto and then Bergen Belsen. My father’s father was in Chelmno and his mother was in Stutthoff. My father was born in a displaced person’s camp in Landsberg. When we tell you this is how it all began, believe us.
— the most online (@danielsieradski) June 17, 2018
11,785 children are now in the care of Donald Trump’s HHS, according to HHS
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) June 18, 2018
BREAKING: Border Patrol releases video of the detention facility in McAllen, Texas.
This is US government video. pic.twitter.com/kOdp5XzuEx
— Antonio Arellano (@AntonioArellano) June 18, 2018
Who wore it better? pic.twitter.com/qYCfZcXNZc
— Aaron Craig 🔰 (@ACraig2031) June 18, 2018
No, these aren’t cages, @SteveDoocy says. The authorities simply “built walls out of chain-link fences.” Yes, that’s a real quote from Fox just now. pic.twitter.com/7oVQ6oE85x
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 18, 2018
How will YOU speak up today, #Portland? Everyone can do SOMETHING. We’re raising the alarm to RED ALERT on authoritarianism. Do SOMETHING that makes you a little uncomfortable, OK? Join a group. Write a letter. Make a call. Send money. Talk with your neighbor. What will YOU do? https://t.co/F9inds8LrK
— WomensMarchPDX (@WomenMarchPDX) June 18, 2018
