Friday on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” host Sean Hannity interviewed Angel Moms and Dad, those parents who lost a child as a result of an action by an illegal immigrant.
Transcript as follows:
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS: You know, the coverage got worse on fake news CNN. Get this, according to a local station in San Diego, after requesting a local reporter to go on CNN to discuss a local view on the border, the so-called facts first network, they spike the segment after discovering the reporters pro wall reporting. CNN is saying it is a nonstory. OK.
But tonight, we have an important question for Democrats and their friends in the media, who are calling the emergency at our southern border a manufactured crisis. This is an important question. We have been asking, is this in the best interest for America? Is this good for our country? Is this good for our economy? Is this good for homeland security?
Here is our question. All of the others think it is a manufactured crisis, what would you say to the families, the thousands of them, that lost loved ones, moms and dads, sons and daughters, at the hands of illegal immigrants? When you call their loss a manufactured crisis? Because there are thousands of these families.
And joining us now, tonight, nine brave Americans whose loved ones were killed by illegal immigrants. The ones you are saying manufactured crisis.
Including Wendy and DJ Corcoran, their son Pierce, 22 years old, was just killed this past December 29th by a suspected illegal immigrant in Knoxville. He was driving on the wrong side of the road, wrong side of the highway. Twenty-two years old.
We are also joined by Laura Wilkerson. Her son Joshua was beaten and strangled and set aflame, on fire, by a classmate who was in this country illegally. Joshua was 18 years old.
Then we have Steve Ronnebeck, his son, Grant, he’s raising money for college, he worked overnight in a convenience store, shot by an illegal immigrant robbing the store where Grant was working overnight, the midnight shift.
Agnes Gibboney is also with us. Her son, Ronald da Silva, was shot in a driveway by an illegal immigrant gang member who had previously been deported.
And let’s introduce Michelle Root. Her daughter, Sarah, was killed by an illegal immigrant who was drunk driving, and he disappeared after posting bail. Why did he get bail?
We are also joined by Mary Ann Mendoza. Her son, Police Sergeant Brandon Mendoza was killed by a drunk driver, in the country illegally, and immigrant, in a head-on collision.
Also with us, Maureen Maloney. Her son, Matthew Denice, was literally killed by an illegal alien drunk driving.
And lastly, we introduce Sabine Durden, her son, Dominic, was killed in a collision by an illegal immigrant who had her two prior DUI convictions. And Dominic was a 911 dispatcher.
Maureen and Sabine are Angel Moms who serve as director for Advocates of Victims of Illegal Immigrants Alien Crimes.
And they all join us.
Thank you all for coming.
Anything worse, just a general question, I’m a parent, I have two kids. I don’t think there is anything worse than losing her son or daughter, right? It’s not natural. We don’t bury our kids, right?
And I’ve met many mothers and fathers of servicemen and women, they go through this. But they know they are going into a risk.
When you find out that it is somebody that was already in the criminal justice system, and they are here illegally — in your case, you are like the newest member of this club that nobody wants to be part of. You just lost your son, right, Wendy? On the 29th?
First, how are you holding up, this is still new to you?
WENDY CORCORAN, MOTHER OF PIERCE KENNEDY CORCORAN: I think we are still numb, still in shock about it to a degree. In finding out so many people are hurting over the same thing, it is just —
HANNITY: Painful.
WENDY CORCORAN: Yes, it is very painful.
HANNITY: Every day you wake up with it.
WENDY CORCORAN: Yes, the reality hits every morning that it is a real.
DJ CORCORAN, FATHER OF PIERCE KENNEDY CORCORAN: That’s the hard time.
HANNITY: That’s the hardest time, the morning when you wake up.
DJ CORCORAN: When you wake up, you feel like you’re going to wake up from a bad dream, and then the tears, and you realize it is real.
HANNITY: Fourteen years, the driver in this case, was in the country.
DJ CORCORAN: He had every opportunity to do the right thing and come here illegally, and become a productive citizen, but he chose not to.
HANNITY: And what about his past criminal record? They won’t reveal it?
DJ CORCORAN: Well, they are saying there is no criminal record, that is how he was able to stay here for this long, because there was nothing.
HANNITY: Yes.
DJ CORCORAN: That they know of, that they know of.
HANNITY: Laura, I have known you now — you’ve done a lot of interviews with me over the years. Good to see you.
LAURA WILKERSON, MOTHER OF JOSH WILKERSON: Good to see you.
HANNITY: Your son was only 18 years old.
WILKERSON: Yes.
HANNITY: Brutally beaten, murdered, set ablaze.
WILKERSON: Yes.
HANNITY: Tell us that story.
WILKERSON: It’s an absolute nightmare. You know, I sent Josh to school one day and he just never came home. I started looking around for him, and I finally found his truck parked next to a dumpster, and called police, and they came, called me over, and everything that was his, his shoes, his stuff, in the dumpster.
We waited in the parking lot all evening. Finally, they arrested a suspect who came back to the crime scene, and they arrested him there. When they took him down to the jail, he had Joshua’s truck key in his pocket. And finally, 24 hours later, he told us where we could find Josh. And —
HANNITY: He had been set a fire after being brutally beaten.
WILKERSON: Yes, he bound him up with 13 ropes around his neck into the back of his hands behind his back, through a belt loop, and then to his feet, tying him up so he could carry him, and then he put him in Joshua’s truck and drove around and bought —
HANNITY: How long ago was this for you?
WILKERSON: 2010.
HANNITY: It doesn’t get easier, does it?
WILKERSON: No, no.
HANNITY: You wake up just like the Corcorans.
WILKERSON: I feel for them, they know the story, it is not their story yet. That comes in time, and then the really pain begins when the shock wears off and you realize that it is forever. I mean, you know —
HANNITY: Every Christmas, every Thanksgiving, every birthday.
WILKERSON: Absolutely.
HANNITY: Yes.
WILKERSON: When you first go home, there are books on the floor, socks on the floor, it takes a long time to get your heart and head in the same place. They are not coming back, you know?
HANNITY: Steve, I’ve known you also a couple of years, I’ve interviewed you a number of times. An amazing kid you had. Your son was 21 years old, Grant. He’s working in a convenience store, during the graveyard shift, midnight to eight shift, and in comes a guy, and your story — his very gets interesting. He was robbing the store, right?
STEVE RONNEBECK, FATHER OF GRANT RONNEBECK: Well, he was actually robbing the store. He came in to buy a pack of cigarettes. And dumped a jar of change on the counter, Grant went to start counting the change, wasn’t counting it fast enough.
So, the man said, what, you’re not going to give my cigarettes? And Grant said, hey, I got to count the change. And the man produced a gun, Grant did everything he was supposed to do, he went ahead and gave him his cigarettes.
As soon as the man had the cigarettes, he went and executed Grant, shot him point blank in the face, and that is when he robbed the store, he came around the counter, grabbed two more packs of cigarettes.
HANNITY: That is all on video?
RONNEBECK: Yes.
HANNITY: I don’t know what that would be like watching the video. I’m sure horrific for you.
It gets worse, though, because this same illegal immigrant had held a young woman hostage, brutally raped her, had been in the criminal justice system, how did he ever get out? And how did he not get deported?
RONNEBECK: He was able to pleaded down his crimes to felony burglary, and just get probation.
HANNITY: But he kidnapped and raped a woman for ten days, repeatedly.
RONNEBECK: Yes. They found her full of heroin, they said she was a drug addict. So, she wasn’t a reliable witness.
HANNITY: No, she was drugged.
RONNEBECK: Yes.
Watch (Part 2):
Transcript continues:
HANNITY: It makes it more painful, knowing they had him, knowing if they did their job — this is a big part of this thing. There are too many instances where the government — we have them, we identify them, we put them in jail, and talk about sanctuary cities and states, then they won’t hand them over to ICE. So, they aid and abet them in the next crime.
And to me, they got some of these guys have blood on their hands by not following the law.
It is so hard to hear the stories because all of the promise your kids, they are so young, 22, 21, 18.
I’m looking at your son, Agnes Gibboney here. Her son is Ronald. This picture, by the way, if I can walk over without getting any shot, that’s him at his wake.
AGNEY GIBBONEY: This is Ronald in the coffin, this is the reality that I live with, and unlike — this is not manufactured, I want to tell the Democrats, this is not manufactured.
And I want to call on our president to please, implement E-Verify, please, stop the insanity for illegal aliens to come to our country and punish employers.
This guy that murdered my son would be coming out of prison next year. My peace and quiet will be taken away from me and my family because I don’t know if he is going to come after me. Why should he live?
HANNITY: So, he is getting released?
GIBBONEY: He’s getting released, but California being a sanctuary state.
HANNITY: This happened in 2002, when you kill an innocent young man, why do you ever get out of jail?
GIBBONEY: Exactly. He is going to get to enjoy his family, his children.
One other point I wanted to make, when Nancy Pelosi said one time that her child — her grandchild was having a birthday, it was his birthday wish, he just wanted to have brown skin. Well, my grand builder and, Ronald’s children, would also like to make a wish, to have their dad back.
HANNITY: I do. I mean, I look at that picture.
GIBBONEY: Look at him, I miss that smile, I miss his bear hugs, I miss everything about him. My life changed completely because of this.
What is even more offensive is I’m a legal immigrant who came — followed the law, came through the right channels, to this country. Why isn’t my country and these politicians standing up for me and for the American citizens of this country? They stand up with illegal aliens and criminals.
HANNITY: You are all of the faces. I want America — pan back and take a look. These are the faces of a manufactured crisis. And that is what the media says about all of you and all of your experiences.
Manufactured? These are real lives.
Now, look at your beautiful daughter, you have a picture. And this is Michelle, your daughter daughter’s name is Sarah.
How old is she?
MICHELLE ROOT, MOTHER OF SARAH ROOT: She was 21 when she was killed. She had just graduated from college with a 4.0 bachelors in criminal investigations. She was hit and killed that night after celebrating on her way home. And when he came over unaccompanied at age 16, was driving, not even his vehicle, street racing, going 70 plus miles per hour, blood alcohol of .241, when he rear-ended my daughter’s SUV.
HANNITY: The legal limit is zero point —
ROOT: Point zero eight.
HANNITY: Zero eight, and he is 2.4?
ROOT: Point two four one.
HANNITY: Wow.
ROOT: And they like to say it was three times the legal limit, no, he is 19, he should not have had any alcohol in him.
HANNITY: So, when did this happen?
ROOT: It was 2016, January 31st is what we consider her death date because she was brain-dead when they got her to the emergency room. However, being the lovely child —
HANNITY: An all-American, young, beautiful, 4.0 student, her whole life and career ahead of her.
ROOT: Correct. And she was an organ donor. We saved six additional people that night with her organs.
But Edwin Mejia made a bond because of the judge set a low bond, and he fled. So he is out there.
HANNITY: I’m so sorry to all of you. I’m so sorry. This has got to stop.
ROOT: Yes.
HANNITY: That is what this show is about. I want people to see what this manufactured crisis, it is not manufactured. She had a right to live, your son had a right to live, your son had a right to live. Your children had a right to live, you know?
I have known you now, Mary Ann Mendoza, for a long time. He is really handsome. He looks like you. Got his good looks. He was a police officer.
MARY ANN MENDOZA, MOTHER OF SGT. BRANDON MENDOZA: Yes, he was. He wanted to be a police officer since he was very, very young. On May 11th, 2014, he spent Mother’s Day with me and went into work, and was going to come back for dessert, he had come for dinner, and he said, mom, I’m too busy, can’t come in.
So, the early hours of May 12th, 2014, he was on his way home from work, and an illegal alien, repeat criminal, had gone over 35 miles the wrong way on four different freeways, high on meth, legal limit drawn, his family let him drive repeatedly to leave a house, keep going back and forth. He slammed head-on into my son.
And I got a call, quarter to three in the morning from Afghanistan, from a Mesa fellow officer who was also an international guard, telling me, mom, he’s had been in a terrible accident. I kept try to call his phone, he wasn’t answering, and then my worst nightmare, the doorbell rang and it was Mesa police to come and take me to the hospital and Brandon died.
HANNITY: I’ve tried to put myself in your shoes, I think parents can do that. I don’t — this is the one thing I don’t think you recover from. I don’t care how strong you think you are, you are not going to recover from this.
MENDOZA: No, and this is not a manufactured crisis, this is where I have to go for his birthday, this is where I have to go for Christmas, for every holiday. And just as recently — Michelle was at my house in Phoenix, I’ve got three people contacting me four and a half years later, talking about the things my son had done for them. This has been a continual for four and a half years.
So, this wasn’t a loss for Sean. This is a loss to my whole —
HANNITY: Does the media ask you for interviews? I know I’ve interviewed you many times. And a number of you — you been on many times.
(CROSSTALK)
You don’t get — they don’t want to hear the story? And then they arrogantly go on TV, you know how I feel about.
MENDOZA: One more picture.
HANNITY: Yes, ma’am.
MENDOZA: This is 330 miles of our southern border in Arizona, 330 miles, and it is a liberal politicians think this is going to keep criminals out of our country, they are insane.
HANNITY: Insane, insensitive, cruel, callous, in a sense, sanctuary cities and states.
From that moment forward that they release people, and don’t deport them and follow the law, they are aiding and abetting the next crime, in my opinion.
(h/t RCP Video)
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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