Jeff Flake Responds to Trump’s ‘Unknown Middle Easterners’ Tweet: ‘A Canard and a Fear Tactic’

Republican Sen. Jeff Flake on Trump’s tweet claiming “unknown Middle Easterners” are “mixed in” with the migrant caravan: “No, that’s long been pretty much a canard and a fear tactic… These… are people who are either fleeing violence or looking for a better life" #CITIZENCNN pic.twitter.com/PagwvTmJ1C

— CNN (@CNN) October 22, 2018

At CNN’s CITIZEN conference today, Senator Jeff Flake criticized President Donald Trump‘s latest tweet about the migrant caravan in Mexico.

Trump is now claiming that there are “unknown Middle Easterners mixed in,” apparently based on something said on Fox News today:

Sadly, it looks like Mexico’s Police and Military are unable to stop the Caravan heading to the Southern Border of the United States. Criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in. I have alerted Border Patrol and Military that this is a National Emergy. Must change laws!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 22, 2018

Jake Tapper read the tweet to Flake and asked if he knows what the President is talking about.

Flake said, “That’s long been pretty much a canard and a fear tactic.”

He argued that while some people may come across the border from elsewhere, a few with “nefarious motives,” but to fearmonger like this and “emphasize the criminals among them” does a disservice.

Flake said the people in the caravan are “either fleeing violence or looking for a better life.”

You can watch above, via CNN.

[image via screengrab]

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