President Donald Trump on Monday continued to spout baseless conspiracy theories about a caravan of migrants and asylum-seekers currently walking through Mexico on the way to the U.S. border.
“They have a lot of everybody in that group, it’s a horrible thing, and it’s a lot bigger than 5,000 people, and we’ve got to stop them at the border,” Trump told reporters outside the White House.
Asked later for any evidence that there were terrorists walking with the caravan — Trump tweeted Monday that “Criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in” with the group — the President could provide none.
“Go into the middle of the caravan, take your cameras and search,” he told a reporter. “John, take your camera, go into the middle and search. You’re going to find MS-13, you’re going to find Middle Eastern, you’re going to find everything.”
Reporters on the ground with the caravan have refuted that claim:
We have been here embedded with the migrants. Have not seen or heard about a single Middle Easterner. I spent seven+ years in the Middle East, and speak a little Arabic, would likely pick up on it… #Migrant #caravan #MiddleEast https://t.co/49BM8DfPtm
— Matt Gutman (@mattgutmanABC) October 22, 2018
Trump continues spouting baseless conspiracy theories about the migrant caravan heading through Mexico: pic.twitter.com/u36pXhds7S
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) October 22, 2018
This post has been updated.
