From a former president of the United States to a billionaire in Silicon Valley, media figures are unanimous on the use of one word in all of their varying statements and social media posts on President Donald Trump’s decision to end the controversial amnesty for illegal aliens who were brought to the country illegally as children is “cruel.”
Those include President Barack Obama, who through executive order in 2012 put the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, in place, which gave temporary legal status and work permits to as many as 850,000 young illegal aliens.
• Obama posted on his Facebook page:
“To target these young people is wrong – because they have done nothing wrong. It is self-defeating – because they want to start new businesses, staff our labs, serve in our military, and otherwise contribute to the country we love. And it is cruel.”
• Because one president slamming another president is not enough, former President Bill Clinton took the cue on what word to include in his lengthy statement:
“Most of all, it’s wrong because it’s cruel to send these young people to places many of them have never lived and do not know,” Clinton said.
• Seth Meyers on his television program said:
“As his summer of near constant chaos ends, President Trump faces a series of challenges more difficult than any he has dealt with up to this point,” Meyers said. “So how has he responded? By threatening to deport hundreds of thousands of law-abiding Americans.”
President Trump’s “cruel and capricious policy” on the dreamers is “supported neither by a majority of voters nor leaders of his own party,” Meyers said.
• “Conservative” Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin entitled her commentary:
“Trump didn’t have the nerve to make cruel DACA announcement himself”
• NBC’s Paul Reyes had a similar headline in his commentary:
“DACA Decision is Cowardly, Cruel and Bad Economic Policy”
• Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) also found the right word to use, calling a “cruel betrayal” to the illegal aliens that have been — and still are — protected from deportation.
• Even the man at the helm of the happiest place on earth weighed in with the “c” word, Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger:
“The Dreamers impacted by this cruel and misguided decision make significant contributions to our economy and our country, and I urge Congress to take immediate bipartisan action to pass legislation that will protect these innocent people.”
• One of the richest men in the world used his own Facebook platform to share his “cruel” wording. Mark Zuckerberg said:
“This is a sad day for our country. The decision to end DACA is not just wrong. It is particularly cruel to offer young people the American Dream, encourage them to come out of the shadows and trust our government, and then punish them for it.”
• Vice President Joe Biden would not be outdone so he chimed in on Twitter about DACA:
“Brought by parents, these children had no choice in coming here. Now they’ll be sent to countries they’ve never known. Cruel. Not America.”
• California Gov. Jerry Brown also weighed in with the “word,” but used his spokeswoman to message the talking point:
His aide, Nancy McFadden, called the DACA decision “senseless and cruel.”
• Outgoing Harvard University president Drew Gilpin, who is obviously highly educated and has a broad vocabulary, also chose the same word in her remarks on the DACA decision.
“This cruel policy recognizes neither justice nor mercy,” Faust wrote in an e-mail to the Harvard Crimson, the elite college’s student newspaper.
Even the former president of Mexico — where a lot of the so-called “dreamers” families fled from — somehow got the message of what word to use in his reaction.
“This measure is cruel and heartless,” Vicente Fox said in a video he posted on Twitter.
• And last, but not least, wealthy socialist and losing presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) took to Twitter to announce his use of the world cruel:
“Trump’s decision on DACA is the ugliest and most cruel decision ever made by a president of the U.S. in the modern history of this country.”
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