In the world of CNN, Donald Trump and conservative media’s focus on illegal immigrant murderers is just an attempt to blame “brown folks” for all of the country’s problems. Inside Politics host Dana Bash and national politics correspondent Eva McKend’s Monday assessment came as Trump traveled to Michigan, where a young woman was recently murdered by an illegal immigrant.
Before the table discussion, correspondent Alayna Treene was in Michigan to set the scene, “And as part of that crime push, he's actually invited the family of a woman named Ruby Garcia to his Michigan event who, Ruby Garcia, was recently killed here in Michigan by an undocumented immigrant, and police authorities say that it was a domestic dispute.”
That is a sanitized version of what happened. Not only was the man previously deported, but the murder also took place during a carjacking.
Still, Bash accused Trump and conservatives of cherry-picking, “The fact that Trump is going to be pushing what you just heard him talking-- he's trying to call it an epidemic. It's, you know, there are certainly some high-profile examples of some violence. He's calling it migrant crime. I call it high-profile because in many ways, conservative media is trying to focus on a couple of really horrible events and make it as if it's perhaps more brought, not perhaps make it sound like it is more broad than it is. Fact.”
The media cherry-picks all the time to fit their narratives, whether it’s the relationship between minorities and the police, guns, women seeking abortions, the morality or intelligence of certain Trump supporters, or any other topic that might make conservatives look bad, but an issue where liberals look bad is where Inside Politics decides to draw the line and insist that anecdotes not be confused for trends.
As for McKend, she managed to be even crazier, “Yeah, Dana, the playbook is largely going to remain the same. He wants to continue to demonize immigrants. He wants to continue to try to argue to Americans, ‘these brown folks, they are the real reasons for your problems.’"
McKend also ignored polls that show immigration is becoming a crucial issue for voters when she tried to dismiss Trump’s focus on the issue as unwise, “The issue, though, when I speak to voters, is that, by and large, this is not where the anxieties lie. So, voters will often address the economy, stagnant wages, high grocery prices, buying a home as all real concerns, but because he is using this playbook again of punching down on immigrants, we'll have to see if-- how this plays.”
How calling attention to the fact that someone with the last name Garcia was murdered by somebody who snuck across the border is “punching down on immigrants” or “brown folks” was something that McKend never cared to explain.
Here is a transcript for the April 2 show:
CNN Inside Politics with Dana Bash
4/2/2024
12:03 PM ET
ALAYNA TREENE: And as part of that crime push, he's actually invited the family of a woman named Ruby Garcia to his Michigan event who, Ruby Garcia, was recently killed here in Michigan by an undocumented immigrant, and police authorities say that it was a domestic dispute.
…
DANA BASH: The fact that Trump is going to be pushing what you just heard him talking-- he's trying to call it an epidemic. It's, you know, there are certainly some high-profile examples of some violence. He's calling it migrant crime. I call it high-profile because in many ways, conservative media is trying to focus on a couple of really horrible events and make it as if it's perhaps more brought, not perhaps make it sound like it is more broad than it is. Fact.
EVA MCKEND: Yeah, Dana, the playbook is largely going to remain the same. He wants to continue to demonize immigrants. He wants to continue to try to argue to Americans, "these brown folks, they are the real reasons for your problems."
The issue, though, when I speak to voters, is that, by and large, this is not where the anxieties lie. So, voters will often address the economy, stagnant wages, high grocery prices, buying a home as all real concerns, but because he is using this playbook again of punching down on immigrants, we'll have to see if-- how this plays.
