An MSNBC host, a CNN analyst, and a Democratic presidential candidate were among those sharing and commenting on a post that falsely claimed President Donald Trump called asylum seekers “animals,” a cycle of renewed disinformation about a clip from 2018.
Judd Apatow, a famous movie director, shared Elliott’s post, adding the caption, “Nazi garbage.”
Hayes shared Apatow’s post without adding any context.
Presidential candidate Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand also shared the misleading video.
“Racist language like this has led to violence throughout the world’s history. No human being is an animal. We have to be better than this,” she wrote.
CNN analyst Ana Navarro was also among those falling for the edited clip, posting a picture of a Nicaraguan boy who she said was seeking asylum in the United States.
“His name is William. Trump calls him ‘animal,’” she wrote.
Trump was responding to a comment by Fresno Sheriff Margaret Mims, who mentioned how she was being blocked by sanctuary laws from informing federal immigration officials about MS-13 gang members.
In response, Trump said, “We have people coming into the country, or trying to come in—and we’re stopping a lot of them—but we’re taking people out of the country. You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people. These are animals. And we’re taking them out of the country at a level and at a rate that’s never happened before. And because of the weak laws, they come in fast, we get them, we release them, we get them again, we bring them out. It’s crazy.”
“The dumbest laws—as I said before, the dumbest laws on immigration in the world. So we’re going to take care of it, Margaret. We’ll get it done,” he added.
The website correctly noted that the president was actually referring to MS-13 gang members.
“During a roundtable with local California officials regarding ’sanctuary cities’ policies, President Trump says his administration is busy rounding up MS-13 gang members and deporting them. ‘These aren’t people,’ he says. ‘These are animals,’” C-Span wrote.
In May 2018, the comment was also framed incorrectly by a host of media outlets and Democratic officials. Others admitted he was talking about gang members but argued that even criminals shouldn’t be referred to as “animals.”
“I can’t call them animals,” he continued, ”even though they have guns. But they don’t like using guns because it’s not painful enough. They want to slice people up, young girls walking home from school, 16 years old, and they sliced them up. They died.”
