A CNN panel launched into a wild debate that got personal as Tiffany Cross accused President Donald Trump’s administration of “kidnapping” migrants and throwing them in “concentration camps.”
On CNN NewsNight on Tuesday, things got heated between Cross, a former MSNBC host, and New York Post editor-at-large Kelly Jane Torrance after Torrance questioned Cross’s rhetoric when she referred to ICE detention centers as “concentration camps.”
The panelists discussed federal immigration agents on horseback and in armored vehicles descending on MacArthur Park in Los Angeles this week, a move Mayor Karen Bass (D) called “political theater.” It is unknown what the purpose of the operation was, and no official arrests were made.
“I think this is the challenge I have with even talking about this. We are normalizing a government agency disappearing people. We’re normalizing — we’re talking about it like it’s no big deal that they are kidnapping people and transporting them to concentration camps, both domestic and foreign,” Cross said.
“I think that’s kind of insulting to Jewish Holocaust survivors,” Torrance objected.
“I think it’s insulting what they’re doing. It is not insulting to the Jewish Holocaust. I find it insulting that you could even fix your mouth to defend this disgusting behavior,” Cross snapped back.
Torrance asked if there are “gas ovens” at these detention
“It doesn’t matter! It’s a concentration camp what they’re doing and they are disappearing people, claiming that these are people who have committed the most harsh crimes, but according to the reporting less than 10% of these people have committed harsh crimes so to do the victim Olympics and decide who had it worse I can tell you I can participate in that too,” Cross said, referring to reporting from CNN.
“Tensions are so heightened, using that kind of language is not helpful,” she said.
A group of individuals was charged this week with attempted murder for an “organized” attack on a Texas ICE facility. One officer was shot in the process. He is expected to survive.
Cross countered Torrance’s point by plainly calling what the Trump administration is doing “kidnapping.”
“I think it’s not because because this BS administration is kidnapping people. It has nothing to do with my language. It has to do with the actions that are being taken by this administration,” she said.
Torrance questioned people being literally “disappeared,” causing the debate to get personal.
“Aren’t you a reporter? Are you not a reporter?!” Cross asked amid the crosstalk as Torrance said she was not “defending” the administration, but trying to be “accurate” in her rhetoric.
Cross dug into Torrance more and insisted that she would look back on their specific debate one day and realize she was on the “wrong side of history.”
“Ten, five, six months, 20 years from now, I hope that you can look back at this very clip and realize that you are on the wrong side of history if you’re trying to remotely defend what’s happening,” Cross said.
Watch above via CNN.