GOP Rep Claims 5-Year-Olds Helping Cartels Smuggle Drugs in Off The Rails MSNBC Hit

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes grilled Rep. Dr. Roger Marshall (R-KS) on a series of outlandish claims he made about immigrant children being separated from their families at the border.

“The president’s intention was never to hurt families,” Marshall insisted about the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy. “His intention was national security and border security.”

That did not satisfy Hayes in the least.

“We have interviewed on this network, we’ve interviewed mothers from Guatemala and Honduras whose sons have been killed by drug cartels who have fled 1000 miles north risking everything. Are they a national security threat?” he asked.

“I think that you have to share the rest of the story,” Marshall replied. “The number of families that are posing as families has quadrupled trying to cross our borders. So you’re having people who are doing human trafficking, terrorists, and cartel members.”

“Where is the evidence of that?” Hayes asked pointedly. “I have heard that. Where is evidence of a terrorist using a child to cross a border? I would like to see some evidence of that.”

“Go look at the kids that are under the age of 5 years old that are being held in custody right now and see how many of them were separated from true parents as opposed to from cartel members or from traffickers. So I think you need to do some more investigative reporting. And that’s why I’m going to the border myself this weekend to sort this out.”

Hayes pointed out that the authorities won’t let anyone into the facilities with five-year-olds, making the request impossible, and then asked Marshall whether he believes, given the vast amount of resources at the cartels’ fingertips, that they would have “better ways of people getting in than haggard Honduran moms crossing the Rio Grande with two kids in tow.”

“How can you explain that the number of people posing as families has quadrupled, people asking for asylum?” Marshall said.

“You keep using the word posing, you keep implying that these people are making up stories, that 5-year-olds have been coached, that they’ve been taken by traffickers,” Hayes said, his voice edged with frustration and sadness. “I’m asking you to present evidence that that is happening in any systemic way.”

“Certainly that was my question for DHS yesterday. They reassured me what I just told you is the truth,” Marshall responded.

Watch above, via MSNBC.

[image via screengrab]