DEA administrator: We're getting Tren de Aragua out before they cause more harm
Principal Deputy DEA Administrator Rob Murphy joins 'America Reports' to discuss Tren de Aragua command being located in Colorado and how the DEA is cracking down on the organization.
This week, ABC, CBS, and NBC sounded like criminal defense lawyers again, but instead of defending pro-Hamas radicals, they advocated passionately on behalf of Venezuelan gangsters. Any foreign figures that are being deported by Trump automatically assume the mantle of innocent victim, no matter how criminal their behavior.
The same goes for any judge that attempts to reverse Trump’s policy decisions. In this case, District Judge James Boasberg became the activist hero of the network narrative for ordering that these gangsters be flown back to America. The "fact-based" newscasts didn’t mention that Boasberg was appointed by President Barack Obama and has accused Trump of fomenting an "insurrection" on January 6.
"NBC Nightly News" and "Today" happily reported "NBC News has tracked 37 rulings from federal judges who have blocked actions by Trump," and none of them were partisans, at least according to NBC.
TRUMP FLIPS SCRIPT ON REPORTER QUESTIONING ADMINISTRATION'S AUTHORITY TO DEPORT ILLEGALS
Trump and his team first called out the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua when they took over several apartment buildings in Aurora, Colorado last October. This spurred ABC "This Week" anchor Martha Raddatz to scold then-vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance in a fact-checking tone: "I'm going to stop you. The incidents were limited to a handful of apartment complexes." Vance quickly shot back: "Do your hear yourself?" What if gangs took over her home? Would a "handful" of homes be a minor problem then?
When CBS "Face the Nation" host Margaret Brennan tried to shame Secretary of State Marco Rubio for criminal activity by migrants, he made a Vance-style turn, suggesting "you should watch the news."
This tilt continues as crusading correspondents warn of "controversial deportations" to a jail in El Salvador and compare President Donald Trump’s decision to the internment of Japanese-Americans in World War II. This was the last time a president invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. They weren’t going to mention that the president who sent innocent Americans to camps was Democrat legend Franklin Roosevelt.
CBS NEWS REMAINS 'ADRIFT' AS NETWORK MARRED IN CONTROVERSY, RATINGS WOES
ABC "Good Morning America" anchor George Stephanopoulos set the negative tone: "The Trump administration ignores a federal judge’s directive sending hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members to a prison in El Salvador with no due process, invoking a centuries-old wartime law to deport them."
These were the terms the networks repeatedly used this week: a "centuries-old law" that’s been used to justify "internment camps," denying the illegal immigrants "due process." The sad irony of all of this is that Trump and Vance have focused on violent crime by illegal immigrants because that causes a dreadful denial of due process.
Americans like Laken Riley and Rachel Morin and 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray were murdered and lost their due process forever. But these networks can’t bother to say their names unless they’re mentioned in passing in an anti-Trump sentence. They are less sympathetic victims than Venezuelan gangsters.
The networks weren’t just comparing these deportations to Japanese-Americans, they dramatically compared them to Irish Americans. "CBS Evening News" anchor John Dickerson opened the show portentously: "On this St. Patrick's Day, as millions of Americans celebrate their Irish heritage, recent events remind us that the Irish were among the first immigrants to be targeted in deportation crackdowns."
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Co-anchor Maurice DuBois joined in: "In the mid-1800s, New York and Massachusetts enforced policies to have Irish immigrants rounded up and deported."
Dickerson continued: "The American Civil Liberties Union didn't exist then, but if it had, it may have taken the legal position it is taking now, suing the Trump administration to stop what it considers to be the illegal deportation over the weekend of more than 200 migrants to El Salvador."
It almost made you miss the last "CBS Evening News" anchor, Norah O’Donnell. But she uncorked similar editorials against Trump during the campaign last fall.
ABC reporter Rachel Scott and NBC reporter Garrett Haake sternly questioned White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt about the deportation flights, and if they would continue. It’s not hard to guess that the networks favored Biden’s mass importation and seem upset when anyone is deported for any reason. "PBS News Hour" suggested Trump’s border moves could be impeachable.
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Left out of all this sound and fury is how illegal immigration has been rapidly reduced to a trickle. That would be good news, so these "news" networks all want to avoid anything that would be a Trump accomplishment, something that would please Trump voters. They have serious trouble acknowledging Trump and the Republicans ever have any "accomplishments."
The broadcast networks seem to construct the news to make sure that coverage of Trump always carries the tone of menace and villainy. Just as NewsBusters found in the first weeks of 2017, everyone should expect the network coverage of Trump will be roughly 90% negative. By contrast, we found coverage of President Joe Biden in the first weeks of 2021 was 59 percent positive. That’s as he reversed all of Trump’s border controls and began the flood of illegal immigration.
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