The news over the last week has been filled with sordid tales of overrun immigration facilities along the southern border. Thousands of children seeking entry into the United States are being denied basic provisions like toothbrushes, diapers, and healthy food.
How can the Trump Administration be so callous, anchors and reporters keep asking. Why isn’t the U.S. better prepared for this influx of humanity?
Well, one reason might be that since Trump came into office, the media have insisted there’s actually no crisis along the border at all. Indeed, this is phony issue the Trump Administration is “manufacturing” so that he can secure funding for a border wall.
Democrats have likewise insisted there is no crisis along the border, and Congress has thus failed to secure the funding to improve these detention centers that the Trump Administration is seeking.
MSNBC’S Eddie Glaude Jr., told viewers: “This is a manufactured crisis. At the heart of this whole thing are a whole bunch of lies.”
His colleague, former John McCain adviser Steve Schmidt, said of the border: “We have a president who will go on TV tonight and lie and lie and lie and lie some more is a manufactured crisis.”
Over on CNN, anchor Chris Cuomo said if there were actually a crisis on the border, his network would be covering it: “Wouldn’t we be there because it was a crisis, they were being overrun? There’s something manufactured about this.”
“There’s no crisis,” insisted Univision’s Jorge Ramos. “It’s a manufactured crisis.”
CNN’s Symone Sanders likewise said claimed the situation on the border “is a manufactured crisis.”
Democrats have likewise been insistent there’s no crisis at the border. Hawaii Sen. Mazi Hirono said during last year’s government shutdown: “He’s taking 800,000 federal employees hostage so he can get his vanity wall. So he’s created this crisis, it’s a manufactured crisis.”
Her House colleague, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), agreed: “All the elected officials, including Republican colleagues, all state that this is a manufactured crisis and a crisis manufactured by the Trump Administration.”
CNN’s Don Lemon said the Trump Administration is “playing” voters.
“He’s determined to convince you there is a crisis at the border,” Lemon said. “They’re playing the public, you, for suckers.”
Today, however, many of these same media personalities are attacking Trump — for not treating the situation on the border as a “crisis.”