Ann Coulter Cites Article From 2011 as Proof Child Migrants at Border are ‘Actors’ — Its Author Responds
Ann Coulter dropped an Ann Coulter-ism on Fox News Sunday night, claiming the migrant children being detained on the southern border are “child actors.”
Coulter was armed with a trusted source for her absurd claim: the New Yorker, which she proudly referred to as “not a conservative publication.”
Here are her full remarks, made as panicked Fox News host Steve Hilton attempted to move on to a commercial break:
“I would also say one other thing, these child actors weeping and crying on all the other networks 24/7 right now. Do not fall for it, Mr. President. I get very nervous about the president getting his news from TV.
The New Yorker is not a conservative publication. They describe how these kids, these kids are being coached. They’re given scripts to read by liberals, according to the New Yorker. Don’t fall for the actor children.”
Mediaite reached out to Coulter to ask what New Yorker article she was referring to, as none of the magazine’s recent coverage of the migrant crisis at the southern border supported her claims. Several hours after our original story was published, she responded with a New Yorker piece from 2011.
The New Yorker story Coulter cited, titled “The Asylum Seeker”, details the efforts of an African immigrant to seek asylum in the United States. To do so, the woman’s lawyer recommended she falsely claim she was beaten and raped in her home country, in order to get past immigration officials.
While the article does demonstrate the existence of economic migrants who disguise themselves as asylum seekers, it does nothing to support Coulter’s claim that the thousands of child migrants separated from their families on the southern border are “actors.”
Suketu Mehta, the author of the New Yorker article, took to Twitter to respond to Coulter.
“If you had 3 functioning brain cells,” Mehta wrote, “you wouldn’t be mentioning my New Yorker article about asylum to support your racist positions. It’s not about child actors, it’s about narratives demanded of adults by a broken asylum system.”
If you had 3 functioning brain cells, @AnnCoulter, you wouldn’t be mentioning my New Yorker article about asylum to support your racist positions. It’s not about child actors, it’s about narratives demanded of adults by a broken asylum system @oliverdarcy
— suketu mehta (@suketumehta) June 18, 2018
UPDATE: Mehta spoke to Buzzfeed News about Coulter’s comments, and it wasn’t pretty:
“Either she lied or she’s truly illiterate,” Mehta said of Coulter’s use of his report. “I was really shocked to see she is using my New Yorker piece, which has no child actors, no liberals toting scripts to be read by child actors.”
“I don’t know if she knows how to read, but she clearly hasn’t read my New Yorker article,” he added.
[image via screengrab]
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