After doubling down on his efforts to characterize MS-13 gang members as “animals,” President Donald Trump again on Wednesday evening accused Democrats of defending the “stone cold killers.”
“They shouldn’t be in the country,” he told Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade during a Wednesday interview broadcast during “Fox and Friends” Thursday. “We are doing, from the standpoint of law enforcement, a great job. The Democrats are sticking up for MS-13. You heard Nancy Pelosi the other day like trying to find all sorts of reasons why they should be able to stay. These are stone cold killers. Vicious killers.”
Trump claims Democrats are "sticking up for" "stone cold killers" involved in the MS-13 gang pic.twitter.com/g6W2htxjYT
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) May 24, 2018
During a roundtable discussion in California last week, Trump claimed that he referred to MS-13 gang members as “animals,” though it wasn’t clear he was speaking only about the gang members in his statement.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) responded to those comments by questioning whether Trump “believe(s) in the spark of dimity, the dignity and worth of every person?”
Pelosi responded to Trump’s comments on Twitter Wednesday evening.
Tough talk from a man separating innocent children from their parents https://t.co/vregqsTtVn
— Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) May 23, 2018
The Trump administration has seized on the violent and horrific crimes carried out by members of the MS-13 gang to defend its hardline stance on immigration, using the attacks to perpetuate its narrative of linking illegal immigration with violent crime.
