CNN’s John Berman Blasts DeSantis For Sending Migrants to Martha’s Vineyard: ‘These Are Human Beings!’
CNN anchor John Berman blasted Florida Governor Ron DeSantis flying asylum-seeking migrants in to Martha’s Vineyard as a dehumanizing political stunt.
Planeloads of migrants were shown arriving in Massachusetts Wednesday in video provided to Fox News, just the latest in a series of stunts in which Republican governors relocate asylum-seekers to make a political point.
On Thursday morning’s edition of CNN’s New Day, CNN political analyst John Avlon broke down the political ramifications of the stunt, but Berman took on what he saw as the moral dimension:
JOHN AVLON: Look, this is a significant escalation of the strategy that Governor Abbott in Texas has been doing, and Governor DeSantis of Florida trying to elbow his way into this game. I think here’s what’s significant based on what we know. First of all, the fact that DeSantis apparently used Florida taxpayer funds to basically charter a flight from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard. So let’s be clear, this is a political stunt to prove a point.
JOHN BERMAN: Definitionally! And I don’t think he would use that language, but I also don’t think he would deny that.
JOHN AVLON: Right. No. I mean, to to a large extent, the sort of pitch to be sort of Trumpism without Trump still relies on being a troll king and seeing how much you can escalate those sorts of politics were using people who would be, in many cases, defined as not just refugees, but given that many are from Venezuela, refugees from a socialist hellhole.
Frankly, given the 20 years of what Chavez, Maduro have done to that nation. That these folks would be used as pawns is particularly interesting and troubling, given also the fact that there are around a quarter of a million Venezuelans living in Florida.
And you got to wonder what they think about seeing some of their former, you know, fellow countrymates being used as political pawns, given the devastation of that country.
JOHN BERMAN: Yeah, I will say this. Two things that people need to take into account when they’re talking about this. Number one, these are human beings!
Whatever you think about the immigration crisis, these are human beings, including children.
And the second thing and again, whatever you think about the immigration crisis, if it’s a crisis, Ron DeSantis is getting what he wants out of this to an extent. Right now. What he wants is publicity. And he’s getting it.
JOHN AVLON: Yeah. You’re dealing with. He is. This is, this is political performance art that treats refugees and human beings and migrants as utterly disposable.
But I do want to emphasize the fact that what’s different about this, perhaps politically, is the fact that many, if not most, are from Venezuela. And that is a different political category, different geopolitical category.
Given how many conservatives have righteously rallied around the cause of Venezuelans trying to resist the Maduro regime. And this all of a sudden adds insult to that particular injury, to see them be used as political props in this particular way, regardless of what they’re trying to leave.
Watch above via CNN.
