Fox News Panel Watches Trump Lie Repeatedly About Migrant Family Separations, Forgets to Fact Check Him
Fox News’ Outnumbered delivered live coverage of President Donald Trump‘s latest pool spray on Tuesday, and yet their panel didn’t see fit to fact-check any of the lies from the President regarding the detainment of migrant families.
As he fielded questions from the Oval Office, Trump claimed former president Barack Obama built cages and separated illegal immigrant families at the border during his administration. Trump also claimed that he was the one who ended that policy, all while saying “once you don’t have it, that’s why you see many more people coming. They’re coming like it’s a picnic, because let’s go to Disneyland.”
Let’s get a few things straight, shall we?
Trump has defended his administration’s “zero tolerance” family separation border policy on repeated occasions, even after rescinding the policy through an executive order. This puts aside the recent reporting that says Trump wants to reinstate family separations, which appears highly relevant to Kirstjen Nielsen‘s forced resignation from the Department of Homeland Security. (Trump, though, did deny wanting to reinstate family separations on Tuesday.)
As for the idea that Obama separated migrant families en masse, fact-checkers have already covered how that argument is false.
While previous administrations engaged in occasional instances of family separations, there was never a widespread blanket policy before to separate children from their guardians while adults were prosecuted for illegal immigration. Nielsen even admitted to reporters once that the Obama Administration’s rate of employing the practice “was less than ours.”
Did Outnumbered bother to explain any of this to viewers? No.
Instead, the panel discussion revolved around Trump’s efforts to tighten national immigration policies and close the loopholes in existing laws. Harris Faulkner and Leslie Marshall also had a bit of a head-to-head when the conversation diverted to whether Democrats have no choice but to negotiate with Trump on border policy.
Later, Melissa Francis addressed Trump’s statements regarding Obama and child separation. She did not note any of the president’s policy lies though, preferring to acknowledge the president’s argument on the border without any push-back or fact-checking.
Watch above, via Fox News.
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