As Bill D'Agostino has previously reported this week at NewsBusters, the media have erected a “wall of falsehoods” surrounding the caravan of economic migrants making its way to the United States-Mexico border from Central America. On Tuesday’sTucker Carlson Tonight, the eponymous host addressed this very topic and asking the rhetorical question of whether or not the press is “better than a propaganda outlet.” Along with guest Buck Sexton, Carlson refuted six claims made by the media and Democrats regarding the caravan.
When discussing the first claim that most of the caravan consisted of “women and children,” Sexton slammed the media for their “march of lies,” adding: “There are some women and children out there but the focus on it is clearly dishonest.” Sexton, a former CIA analyst, pointed out the truth that the “vast majority” of migrants “are clearly what we would have called in the agency military age males.”
On another caravan claim that they're “mostly comprised of genuine asylum seekers seeking refuge in the U.S.” Sexton pushed back and blasted it as a “scam” and something “people realize that now but the media was pretending all along that it is not.”
When addressing a third claim that were no criminals in the caravan, Sexton gave hard statistics to refute that, pointing to an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement statement alleging that the caravan includes 600 people “that we are sure have a criminal record apart from trying to cross the border and perhaps throw some rocks at some Federal agents.” Sexton concluded that “certainly the media was trying to find a way to avoid the fact that there were some bad folks among this whole group,” to which Carlson plainly asserted that “they were lying.”
Going to a fourth claim, former President Obama dismissed the caravan as a minimal threat because “we don’t even know where they are, they are way down there.” For that, Sexton reminded the media and the left that “buses and trains exist in Mexico” and that the members of the caravan “got on buses, trains, other modes of transportation, got through to the border.”
Rebutting the notion that the caravan received no financial help, Sexton argued that the media could have figured that out, but they issue has been “they don’t want to know, they just want to present people getting tear-gased, mothers and children...when the reality is this is a massive scam, there is a lot of outside help.”
After refuting one last claim that deploying troops to the border was unnecessary, Sexton unloaded on “this progression of lies all along the way,” concluding that the press “always gets it wrong in one direction and that is somehow, we are exaggerating this...when in fact, we are underestimating the reality of how big this problem is going to get.”
Based on the “precise, fact-based summation” given by Sexton on Tucker Carlson Tonight, many in the media deserve “four pinocchios” for their coverage of the caravan.
A transcript of the relevant portion of Tuesday’s Tucker Carlson Tonight is below. Click “expand” to read more.
Tucker Carlson Tonight
11/27/18
08:15 PM
TUCKER CARLSON: Big news this weekend. The migrant caravan actually exists. It’s right across the U.S. border in Tijuana, Mexico, causing huge problems for that city. That may be a surprise to you because you have been hearing for weeks and weeks that they caravan wasn’t real. You would have to be a right-wing bigot to think it was. Then they told you it is so far away that it’s irrelevant. Well, then on Sunday, that irrelevant imaginary migrant caravan attacked American border guards. And that may surprise you more still because you were told the caravan was entirely harmless and again, if you believed otherwise, you were a bad person. Well soon, a new story…we don’t know what it is but we can be sure there is one…will come to dominate the headlines and the migrant caravan will be mostly forgotten; even if the border crisis remains unresolved. The press, the public, likely the President too, will have moved on. But we want to pause just for a moment before that happens, that inevitably happens, and look back and consider how this story was handled by the press because we think it matters. Now, the story evolved rapidly and the media’s official story evolved just as rapidly. But were their descriptions about what was happening factually on the ground true? Tonight, we want to investigate that. This is not a partisan question, by the way. It’s about the future of the country. For a free society to function, the press does not have to be perfect, but it does have to be better than a propaganda outlet. Are they? Let’s break it down with Buck Sexton, he’s a former CIA Analyst and host of “The Buck Sexton Show” and he joins us tonight. Buck, thanks a lot for coming on. You’ve been following this really closely, you had a, really I thought, incisive breakdown of the coverage and so I want to put these questions to you. This is claim number one. The migrant caravan, we were told, is mostly women and children who pose no threat to anybody. Here’s one example of that claim.
STEPHANIE RUHLE: All of this for a group of people, a lot of whom are mothers and children who pose no imminent threat to the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Many of these individuals are women and children.
CARLSON: Oh, the talking point, you remember it. Was it true?
BUCK SEXTON: No, in fact, the vast majority of them are clearly what we would have called in the agency military age males. These are guys; mostly in their 20s and 30s. And that was apparent, Tucker. I mean, there are the…there are the misreporting that you could expect from people making an honest mistake and then there’s a lot of journalists gathered together because I have been talking to journalists all throughout this caravan’s progression, and there has just been this march of lies. There’ve been some people telling the truth but all you have to do is be there and you see it’s guys, this is mostly guys. There are some women and children there but the focus on it is clearly dishonest.
CARLSON: Of course. Claim number two, the caravan, we were told, again and again, is mostly comprised of genuine asylum seekers seeking refuge in the U.S.
MARIA CARDONA: These people are coming and asking for asylum. Guess what, Ben? It’s in our laws that people are allowed to come to our borders and ask for asylum.
CARLSON: Yeah, it’s our fault for not welcoming them because they are sincere asylum-seekers. Is that true?
SEXTON: No, it’s a scam. And people know it’s a scam based on the percentage of individuals in the past who have come and tried to claim asylum in this way and the fact that they are being coached to lie. This is actually a form of fraud. When you say that I am in imminent fear of my life because people along the way have said, this is what you have to say to get into the asylum process, you can later be adjudicated; you are lying to people in a vast majority of these cases. And by the way, if just being from Honduras, for example, means you are in such threat of violence you could get asylum, then the whole country would qualify for asylum. So this is a scam and people realize that now but then the media was pretending all along that it is not.
CARLSON: That is such a good point. Why doesn’t the whole country qualify for asylum? I’m sure we will hear soon that it does. Claim number three, there are no criminals in this caravan.
JORGE RAMOS: I spent two days with the caravan and I didn’t see criminals or rapists or terrorists.
CHRIS CUOMO: Stop saying there are monsters. There are more mothers than monsters.
CARLSON: How do the dumb people get on TV? But they do. Was that true? There are no criminals. There are more mothers than monsters.
SEXTON: An official statement yesterday from Immigration and Customs Enforcement says about 600 known criminals, by the way, so those are people that we are sure have a criminal record apart from trying to cross the border and perhaps throw some rocks at some Federal agents, and oh, by the way, I remember speaking with journalists early on in this, Tucker, said pretty sure there are criminals because there are a whole bunch of guys covered in MS-13 tattoos, which are very prominent, who are marching along with the caravan, too. So this was known from the beginning but people chose to focus on other things.
CARLSON: Were they MS-13 mothers not monsters, or were they men?
SEXTON: I suppose that is possible but certainly the media was trying to find a way to avoid the fact that there were some bad folks among this whole group.
CARLSON: They were lying. Claim number four, and this comes from a former Commander-in-Chief. The caravan doesn’t matter. And you are a bad person for worrying about it because it’s very far away.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: They are telling you that the existential threat to America is a bunch of poor refugees a thousand miles away. This group of folks, we don’t even know where they are, they are way down there.
CARLSON: They are way down there. We don’t even know where they are, Buck.
SEXTON: Buses and trains exist in Mexico, which I think journalists know, especially journalists who are in Mexico reporting on this but there was always this, well, it’s going to take them forever to march. No, what they did is, they, by the way, with some help, got on buses, trains, other modes of transportation, got through to the border. By the way, if they were actually refugees as Obama says, they should claim refugee status in the first country they arrive in, where they are no longer under mortal threat. Mexico has offered them asylum, they have said no because they are not refugees, they are just people that want to get to the front of the line for immigration.
CARLSON: Such a great point. Jorge Ramos of Univision came on this program to present claim number five that the caravan received no external support.
RAMOS: I know that there are fake stories in the United States saying that these people were funded by George Soros and by Democrats or by Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela. If they really financed these people, it was a scam. I have been talking to people here in Chiapas who don’t have a single dollar, Tucker, to buy a bottle of water. So there is no financing here.
CARLSON: No financing at all. And by the way, you are immoral if you claim otherwise.
SEXTON: It’s a lie. I’ve talked to journalists who are seeing people handing out food, gathering donations together so they can buy food and equipment. When you got six, 7,000 people together, that is going to be a difficult logistical challenge; unless there are people who are there to provide support and there clearly are people providing support. So again, if journalists wanted to know this stuff, Tucker, some of them do but they just don’t get as much air time at places like CNN and MSNBC, they could find out but they don’t want to know, they just want to present people getting tear-gased, mothers and children, if you don’t like this, you are a monster, when the reality is this is a massive scam, there is a lot of outside help, and there are laws that are being broken here.
CARLSON: And finally, we have the sixth claim, that deploying troops to the border was wrong, but it was also completely unnecessary. As a New York Times cartoonist put it, “troops sign up to fight in an obscure country in the Middle East, not to guard their own country’s border.” Kamala Harris agreed with that.
SENATOR KAMALA HARRIS: It is inappropriate to require the limited resources of the United States military to be used in such a way, all because there needed to be some demonstration for the TV cameras based on a political agenda instead of what is a national security threat.
CARLSON: So why aren’t they in Syria where they belong?
SEXTON: Also, why can’t Senator Harris call down to Border Patrol and say, or Immigration and Customs Enforcement that matter, do you think it’s helpful? Because the answer is yes. Because I’ve spoken to border patrol and they say that the logistical support that the military was giving them was in fact very much-needed because this caravan was arriving and there were real concerns that they would try to overrun the border, which, Tucker, is exactly what they did do. So we have just had this progression of lies all along the way and in every phase, it seems the media always gets it wrong in one direction and that is somehow, we are exaggerating this threat when in fact we are underestimating the reality of how big this problem is going to get.
CARLSON: A precise, fact based summation and we are grateful for it. Buck Sexton, thank you very much.
