Shep Smith Misled His Viewers, The Caravan Just Showed Up at Our Doorstep
Conservative Fox News viewers have steadily grown weary of mid-afternoon anchor Shepard Smith over the past few years as he has allowed his obvious hatred of President Donald Trump and Republicans to shine through in his daily coverage of current events and political news, which has increasingly grown indistinguishable from that of CNN or MSNBC.
A classic example of this is how Smith absolutely misled viewers in the run-up to the midterm elections with regard to the thousands-strong migrant caravan working it’s way from Central America through Mexico toward the southern U.S. border.
Smith had taken great issue with the president’s focus on the migrant caravan as a threat to our nation’s border and sovereignty — essentially accusing Trump of fear-mongering and inciting animus against immigrants for racial reasons — and proceeded to sanctimoniously dismiss the entire column of unknown migrants as “nothing at all to worry about” in a calm and disgustingly condescending tone.
“Tomorrow, the migrants, according to Fox News reporting, are almost two months away, if any of them actually come here. But tomorrow is one week before the midterm election, which is what all of this is about,” said Smith.
Shep Smith on the migrant caravan: “There is no invasion. No one is coming to get you. There is nothing at all to worry about.” pic.twitter.com/4dLmPuZem0
— Jon Passantino (@passantino) October 29, 2018
“There is no invasion. No one is coming to get you. There is nothing at all to worry about,” he continued. “When they did this to us — got us all riled up in April, remember? — the result was 14 arrests. We’re America, we can handle it … But, like I said, a week to the election, so …”
The denizens of liberal media were overjoyed that their anti-Trump inside man at Fox News had called out the bad orange man for his ridiculous fear-mongering over a migrant caravan that would never actually reach the U.S. border — but their joyous celebration at the smug “gotcha” moment may have been a tad bit premature.
Contrary to Smith’s self-righteous assurances in late October, the Palm Springs Desert Sun in California reported on Tuesday — just two weeks later — that the first wave of the caravan had already reached Tijuana, Mexico, and was preparing to enter the U.S. via the El Chapparal port of entry on the border.
That first wave consisted of about 400 Central American migrants — at least one of whom was waving a Honduran flag — who arrived in Tijuana in nine separate buses. They will now join other migrants who were already waiting in overcrowded shelters to claim asylum, and who were worried that the approaching caravan would have an adverse impact on their chances of receiving such asylum.
In the meantime, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol shut down some of the northbound lanes entering the U.S. at the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa border crossings while U.S. military support troops further hardened the border area by installing barriers and fencing and razor wire to discourage illegal entry.
The Desert Sun noted that a Mexican official in the Baja region informed them that Tijuana only had room in its migrant shelters and churches for about 500 more migrants after the arrival of the 400 Tuesday morning, even as thousands more are on their way and could arrive within the next few days or weeks.
Indeed, after the first caravan that numbered roughly 7,000 migrants — which initially set out northward from Honduras in mid-October — had paused for a few days in Mexico City, about 5,000 of them left on Friday to continue the journey toward America’s border. Meanwhile, two smaller caravans — that nevertheless still numbered in the thousands — had formed up in the wake of the first and are currently on their way toward Mexico City.
In response to the approaching caravans, President Trump has deployed at least 5,200 U.S. military personnel to buttress the 2,000 National Guard troops that were already providing assistance to the Border Patrol, part of what has been dubbed by the Department of Defense as “Operation Secure Line.”
In addition to that, Trump also issued a proclamation regarding asylum claims which disqualified any migrant who entered the country illegally, instead changing the policy to only allow asylum claims from migrants who entered legally through an official port of entry.
Liberal Shep Smith misled his Fox News viewers in downplaying the imminence of the threat posed by the approaching migrant caravans, part of his continuing efforts to disparage and mock the president at any given opportunity.
Smith should be ashamed of himself as he was provably wrong in his dismissal of the migrant caravan, and he owes his viewers — however many are actually left — an apology for placing his anti-Trump snark above factually reporting the news in a straight-forward manner.
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