Conservative journalists have been reporting for years about the humanitarian crisis that illegal immigration has caused. For months, Republicans in Congress have been pushing for additional funding to address the crisis at the border, consistently shot down by their colleagues on the other side of the aisle. In the last few weeks, however, Democrats and their allies in the media have finally woken up to the fact that our border is in disarray.
Despite once saying that Americans are “stupid” for believing there is a crisis at the southern border, Morning Joe is now trying to shift the blame on the Trump Administration and claim the moral high ground when it comes to the inhumane conditions faced by arrested illegal immigrants in increasingly overwhelmed migrant detention centers.
On a Tuesday edition of the show, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson and MSNBC economic analyst Steve Rattner attempted to push the blame to the President:
EUGENE ROBINSON: Well, this stuff -- this starts at the top, Willie, and Heidi. It really does. I mean, the President sets a tone and you just heard the tone he is setting. I mean, it's, yeah, go ahead, go after the Democrats in Congress. They're wrong. They want open borders. I mean, there's no accountability. There was no word of sympathy for the immigrants, no word of reprimand for the agents who participated in these groups and it's a reflection of the attitudes that they are actually being encouraged to have and to display and this only gets worse, I think, until there's a change of tone at the top.
STEVE RATTNER: I think it's just worth noting that the House bill to provide the additional aid would have put significant limits and requirements on how DHS treated these immigrants. The Senate shot it down and passed a bill without those restrictions so I think the Democrats have shown they're on the humane side of the issue, not for open borders.
It is interesting that Rattner claims that Democrats are “on the humane side of the issue,” considering it is well documented that migrant detention centers were in similar condition under the Obama Administration. In documenting the story at the border, many news outlets have used photos of the detention centers from when Obama was in office.
If the media actually wanted to fully examine the treatment of migrants, they would most certainly be questioning Democratic frontrunner Vice President Biden about his role in detaining illegal immigrants at the border (as part of the Obama administration). However, reporters only seem to care when they are able to blame Republicans.
The full transcript is below. Click "expand" to read more.
Morning Joe
07/02/2019
6:27 A.M. Eastern
WILLIE GEIST: So Heidi, if you read through some of those posts on the Facebook page as reported by ProPublica, again, we haven't independently seen those at NBC News, but, if you read through their reporting, they're obviously disgusting, they’re obviously reprehensible the way they talk about the people in the facilities and members of Congress. But this is members of Congress getting their firsthand view and not having to tweet from Washington and seeing those conditions for themselves yesterday.
HEIDI PRZYBYLA: We're talking, Willie, according to their reporting about a really troubling culture being created within these facilities: a culture of cruelty, of vulgarity, of sexism, of treating these children as if they're not human. And let's just say throughout history, this dehumanization of immigrants, of ethnic minorities has never led to anything good. And so the question now is how is Congress going to respond to this? Because the problem here is really what the members of Congress are trying to highlight which is there's a lack of accountability. There is a lack of oversight. We now know according to ProPublica's reporting that these accounts are linked to real border patrol agents, people who they could tomorrow go and get and punish and punish publicly in order to try and staunch this culture that is being created in these institutions and so the pressure really is on Congress because this has already gone on -- let's say those accounts have been going on for about a year, so how are they going to handle this? And is there going to be any repercussions and any change in Congress? Because these -- guys, these are only the things that we're actually seeing and learning about. But what are the everyday indignities and cruelties that are being suffered by these children and by these individuals who are in these facilities?
EUGENE ROBINSON: Well, this stuff -- this starts at the top, Willie, and Heidi. It really does. I mean, the President sets a tone and you just heard the tone he is setting. I mean, it's, yeah, go ahead, go after the Democrats in Congress. They're wrong. They want open borders. I mean, there's no accountability. There was no word of sympathy for the immigrants, no word of reprimand for the agents who participated in these groups and it's a reflection of the attitudes that they are actually being encouraged to have and to display and this only gets worse, I think, until there's a change of tone at the top.
STEVE RATTNER: I think it's just worth noting that the House bill to provide the additional aid would have put significant limits and requirements on how DHS treated these immigrants. The Senate shot it down and passed a bill without those restrictions so I think the Democrats have shown they're on the humane side of the issue, not for open borders.
