Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press” during his interview with President Donald Trump, moderator Chuck Todd accused the U.S. government of holding migrant children “hostage” at the southern border.
Todd asked, “I want to ask what’s going down with the children in these migrant camps. The stories are horrible, Mr. President. You have children without their parents. You have kids taking care of kids. You’ve, you’ve read these reports. I know people are coming to you. I know you think this is the Democrats’ problem. They’re in terrible shape down there, Mr. President. Down in Homestead, Florida, that’s where I grew up. It’s, the conditions are terrible.”
Trump said, “I agree. It’s been that way for a long time.”
Todd said, “Do something! Do something!”
Trump continued, “And President Obama built the cages.”
Todd’s shot back, “Do two wrongs make a right?”
Trump said, “Chuck just listen for one second. Separation, President Obama, I took over separation. I’m the one that put it together. What’s happening are the cartels, and all these bad people are using the kids. They’re— it’s almost like slavery.”
Todd replied, “But let’s not punish the kids more. The kids are getting punished more.”
Trump said, “You’re right. And this has been happening long before I got there. What we’ve done is we created — we’ve ended separation. You know, under President Obama, you had separation. I was one that ended it. Now, I said one thing when I ended it, I said, here’s what’s going to happen, more families are going to come up. And that’s what’s happened. But they’re really coming up for the economics. Once you ended the separation. I ended separation. I inherited separation from President Obama. President Obama built —they call them jail cells.”
He continued, “We’re doing a fantastic job under the circumstance. The Democrats aren’t even approving giving us money. Where is the money? You know what? The Democrats are holding up the humanitarian aid.”
Todd said, “It looks like these kids are being used as, as some sort of — is it hostages? They’re being held hostage.”
Trump said, “Well, they are being used. They are being used by very bad people on the other side.”
He added, “If the Democrats would change the asylum laws and the loopholes, which they refuse to do because they think it’s good politics, everything would be solved immediately. But they refuse to do it. They refuse to do it.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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