As media outlets continue to falsely report that President Donald Trump recently referred to immigrants as “animals,” Kellyanne Conway took to Twitter to demand an apology from every single one of them.
Retweeting CNN’s Jake Tapper, who provided the full text for the president’s out-of-context remark to show he was actually speaking about the violent gang MS-13, the counselor to the president brought down the hammer:
Others who rushed to judgment to get the President rather than to get the story owe @POTUS – and the grieving loved ones who have lost family members to gang violence – an apology. https://t.co/vLU4SgKpux
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) May 17, 2018
Here is the full context of President Trump’s “animals” comment during the immigration/sanctuary city roundtable, which came as a Sheriff was complaining about restrictions placed on ICE databases, and MS-13 gang members. pic.twitter.com/sI9uWXr1Sc
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) May 17, 2018
Conway’s tweet comes after a barrage of accusations of xenophobia and racism was hurled at the president following his Wednesday roundtable on California’s “sanctuary state” policies.
During the event, as Tapper pointed out, a sheriff brought up restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) databases and the difficulty of deporting MS-13 members.
That’s when the president took a shot at the gang members, not all immigrants:
“We have people coming into the country, or trying to come in — and we’re stopping a lot of them — but we’re taking people out of the country. You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people. These are animals. And we’re taking them out of the country at a level and at a rate that’s never happened before. And because of the weak laws, they come in fast, we get them, we release them, we get them again, we bring them out. It’s crazy.”
Watch:
Many members of the media mistook his comments to be about all illegal immigrants in general and ran with the misleading story. Even once the full context of President Trump’s remark was provided, some shifted toward actually defending MS-13:
however repugnant their actions, MS-13 gang members are human beings IMHO
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) May 17, 2018
What if MS-13 members are still human and it’s bad to call them animals
— Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt) May 17, 2018