The Reviews Are in, DHS Sec Nielsen Bombed at Her Briefing on Child Separations: ‘My God’ She’s ‘Bad at This’

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders held a briefing today amidst growing outrage over the Trump administration policy that separates child migrants from their parents at the southern border.

She brought a special guest to help out: Kirstjen Nielsen, the Secretary of Homeland Security, who faced a remarkably brutal grilling from an invigorated White House press corps.

It’s surprising Sanders even showed up. CNN reported ahead of the briefing that she didn’t want to hold one on Monday, given the current outrage over Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy. (Sanders denied this during the briefing).

A White House official tells @jeffzeleny that @PressSec didn’t want to do the briefing today amid questions on child separation policy, so @SecNielsen is being flown in from New Orleans to take questions.

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) June 18, 2018

Nielsen’s portion of the briefing was a 20-minute bloodbath, in which reporters pummeled her with questions about the policy that she defended over the weekend, before denying its existence. At one point, New York magazine’s Olivia Nuzzi played audio, published by ProPublica earlier, that recorded border patrol agents mocking weeping child migrants separated by their parents.

Things are off the chain in here. Someone is playing the sound of that child in the back. We hear it. I wonder if Madam Sec is heating it?

— AprilDRyan (@AprilDRyan) June 18, 2018

.@Olivianuzzi is playing it right next to me in the briefing room right now. https://t.co/1RiATBWYaP

— Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) June 18, 2018

Nielsen’s performance was not well received. She made a number of confusing and inaccurate statements, and brandished a coarse attitude in response to questions about the cruelty of the zero tolerance policy. She even provided this exchange:

Q: how is this not child abuse?
Nielsen: be more specific, please

— Alexandra Petri (@petridishes) June 18, 2018

Yup. Here are the rest of the reviews:

This is not going well.

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) June 18, 2018

My prediction: @SecNielsen is out of this job soon.

— Soledad O’Brien (@soledadobrien) June 18, 2018

DHS Sec. Nielsen says she finds it offensive that a reporter ask if she’s separating children as a deterrent to their crossing. Last year, when John Kelly was DHS chief, he said exactly that: https://t.co/eEeyxjyHfE

— Gillian Brockell (@gbrockell) June 18, 2018

It’s my policy not to call it a policy save when it’s my policy in which case I will say it’s a policy but you cannot agree with me that it’s my policy because it’s not my policy except when I say it’s my policy.

— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahNRO) June 18, 2018

Nielsen has left. That was very dishonest.

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) June 18, 2018

Asked whether tearing kids from their parents was an intended or unintended consequence, Nielsen answers: “Why would I create a policy that purposely does that?”
THAT IS THE QUESTION!

— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) June 18, 2018

Not really sure what @SecNielsen just accomplished with that briefing.

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) June 18, 2018

This is unreal. UNREAL.

She doesn’t want to engage in the on the ground reality. So she blames the media.

Inexcusable. https://t.co/5c6A7b3dZw

— Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) June 18, 2018

Why should anyone trust anything this person says?

Is the—is the answer that you shouldn’t? https://t.co/rSABqQqIXq

— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) June 18, 2018

For safety reasons, Kirstjen Nielsen should make that beeping sound when she dumps a load of this bullshit.

— pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) June 18, 2018

I honestly can’t believe what I just saw from the WH briefing room

— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) June 18, 2018

My god @SecNielsen is bad at this. The lying and the bullying, condescending tone is going to make things worse.

— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) June 18, 2018

Kirstjen Nielsen comes off both evasive and tone-deaf, and dollars to donuts is the prize she gets out of all this is yelled at by Trump for not defending him strongly enough.

— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) June 18, 2018

Kirstjen Nielsen seems to not have seen the pictures of the children in the cages?

— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) June 18, 2018

They have been flashing across television screens and printed on the front page of newspapers for days. https://t.co/DpPXoXrfcF

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) June 18, 2018

Watch more here.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Aidan McLaughlin (@aidnmclaughlin) on Twitter