When President Trump responded to Jim Acosta's hectoring on Friday about manufacturing a border emergency, the president suggested he talk to the "Angel moms" who have lost children due to illegal immigrants. After the press conference, Acosta insisted "our hearts go out to them."
But they can not stand the president citing them as an argument. Just minutes after Acosta, CNN analyst Kirsten Powers also said their hearts empathized....but she couldn't stick to empathy.
KIRSTEN POWERS: This has long been a position of people on the right, though. So he has a captive audience on this. And if you look at the Angel moms, for example, who, of course, our hearts go out to. I mean, it's so tragic. You have a woman --
KATE BOLDUAN: 100 percent.
POWERS: -- who lost her only son. Whose heart doesn't break when we see that? But then when you put that up against the statistics, it doesn't match up, that we have a crisis going on, where undocumented immigrants are coming in and murdering people.
Anecdotes aren't statistics, right? Is that why CNN didn't put on grieving Parkland moms and dads and student activists like David Hogg?? It didn't match the government facts on crime with guns? The term "Parkland kids" gets 30 mentions in the last year on CNN.
And yet, in this exchange, Bolduan is sputtering about how Trump won't use facts that don't match his narrative. CNN, heal thyself.
A quick Nexis search for the term "Angel moms" in CNN Transcripts (which covers most hours of the day) from January 20, 2017 to yesterday found TEN mentions of the term. Not ten stories. Not ten interviews with Angel moms. Ten mentions.
It gets worse. Every one of these ten mentions comes from the president, his press secretary, or pro-Trump analysts on CNN. The "Facts First" journalists at CNN seemed to avoid the term, scrupulously. They didn't even try "so-called Angel moms." Apparently, the term itself was Trumper propaganda.
We should add the disclaimer that this is only a term search, and there may be interviews or stories on Angel moms that avoided the term. But here's the list:
-- President Trump (live coverage), State of the Union, February 5: "I've gotten to know many wonderful Angel moms and dads and families."
-- Sarah Huckabee Sanders (live), New Day interview, February 5: "Hopefully the Democrats in the room will be listening, not just to the president, but to the people of this country, to the families, the Angel moms across this country."
-- Sarah Huckabee Sanders, this sentence, aired on The Lead with Jake Tapper, February 5.
-- President Trump (live coverage) CNN Newsroom, January 19: "I have gotten to know and love Angel moms, dads and family who lost loved ones to people illegally in our country. I want this to end. It's got to end now."
-- Pro-Trump analyst Steve Cortes, CNN Tonight, December 18, 2018: "A government shutdown would hurt some people and would hurt them temporarily. But there are people being hurt permanently in the United States...Angel moms, angel dads who have lost American citizens --"
(Host Don Lemon shut him down, claiming time constraints, that he needed to let Maria Cardona respond. Oh, how her heart bled for Angel moms! "Steve was pivoting to the absolute ridiculously flawed and false fearmongering that the president uses to try to get people to believe that there is a huge crisis, national security crisis on the border and there is not!" )
-- President Trump (live coverage), CNN Newsroom, June 22, 2018: "We call these brave Americans "the Angel Families." Angel moms, Angel pops. These are the Angel Families. Your loss will not have been in vain. We will secure our borders, and we will make sure that they're properly taken care of. Eventually, the word will get out. "
-- Pro-Trump analyst Jason Miller, At This Hour, June 20, 2018: I think the president takes this issue of M.S.-13, of the gang problem, of the human trafficking and the drug trafficking, I think he takes this very personally, that he looks and he's met with so many of these Angel moms and families, Kate Steinle's family, the people have been impacted by these lax border policies, whether they be sanctuary cities or other things. [Host Kate Bolduan changed the subject that day.]
-- Pro-Trump analyst Jason Miller, Anderson Cooper 360, April 28, 2018: "He's talked about sanctuary city over and over. I mean when he had the Angel moms, they'll come and join him on a campaign trail or Kate Steinle's family."
-- Pro-Trump analyst Jason Miller, At This Hour, April 26, 2017: When you look at the tragic murders of people like Kate Steinle, you look at the pain that Angel moms across the country have gone through, those parents and loved ones of people killed by those here illegally, this is so much pain and the hardship they've had to go through. [Bolduan changed the subject here, too.]
-- President Trump (live coverage), CNN Newsroom, January 25, 2017: "I want to thank the Remembrance Project, such incredible people, for giving these families a voice. They're called Angel moms for good reason, because they are a voice to protect all of America's children. Their children have not died in vain, believe me."
