Sarah Doubles Down, Says Trump Didn't Go Far Enough in Calling MS-13 'Animals'
President Donald Trump held a round-table discussion at the White House on Wednesday with California law enforcement officials and political leaders who oppose the state’s “sanctuary” laws that make it more difficult for them to cooperate with federal immigration officials.
One of the sheriffs in attendance remarked that she has been unable to turn over some illegal immigrants, even if she knew the individual was a member of the brutally murderous MS-13 gang. In his response, Trump referred to these gang members as “animals.”
Unsurprisingly, the anti-Trump liberal media and elected Democrats immediately took Trump’s remark out of context and posted a flurry of broadcasts, reports and tweets insinuating that Trump had referred to all illegal immigrants as “animals,” obviously with an intent of smearing him as racist and anti-immigrant.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had none of it during Thursday’s daily briefing, where she took the media to task for their deliberate mis-characterization of the president’s comment, and doubled down on the term for MS-13 gang members.
“The president was very clearly referring to MS-13 gang members who enter the country illegally and whose deportations are hamstrung by our laws,” Sanders said. “This is one of the most vicious gangs that operates by the motto of ‘rape, control, and kill.'”
“If the media and liberals want to defend MS-13, they’re more than welcome to. Frankly I don’t think the term the president used was strong enough,” she continued.
Sanders proceeded to share a few examples of the “heinous acts” committed by MS-13 gang members that most certainly would qualify them to be described as “animals.”
“It took an animal to stab a man 100 times and decapitate him and rip his heart out,” Sanders said.
“It took an animal to beat a woman they were sex trafficking with a bat 28 times, indenting part of her body. And it took an animal to kidnap, drug and rape a 14-year-old Houston girl,” she continued.
“Frankly, I think that the term ‘animal’ doesn’t go far enough, and I think that the president should continue to use his platform and everything he can do under the law to stop these types of horrible, horrible, disgusting people,” she added.
Following the backlash many major media outlets received after they purposefully took Trump’s remark out of context and applied it to all illegal immigrants, most of those outlets issued corrections and half-hearted apologies, but the damage had been done and their overt bias revealed.
According to Politico, Trump himself pushed back against the media-perpetuated misconception and doubled down on his “animals” remark as well on Thursday. He also bluntly stated that he would continue to use that term to describe MS-13 gang members in the future.
“Fake News Media had me calling Immigrants, or Illegal Immigrants, ‘Animals.’ Wrong! They were begrudgingly forced to withdraw their stories,” he tweeted Friday. “I referred to MS 13 Gang Members as ‘Animals,’ a big difference — and so true. Fake News got it purposely wrong, as usual!”
Fake News Media had me calling Immigrants, or Illegal Immigrants, “Animals.” Wrong! They were begrudgingly forced to withdraw their stories. I referred to MS 13 Gang Members as “Animals,” a big difference – and so true. Fake News got it purposely wrong, as usual!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 18, 2018
Trump was right to call the evil men of MS-13 “animals” and Sanders was absolutely right in calling out the media for their purposeful misreporting on the remark, as well as for noting that those brutally murderous gang members are actually worse than mere animals.
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