Acosta said that Trump, based on “facts and statistics,” was “creating or concocting a national emergency” as opposed to there already being one at the border, “in order to get your wall.”
Trump motioned to a group of “angel moms,” who have had had family members murdered by illegal aliens.
“Ask the angel moms. What do you think?” he asked, motioning to the group. “Do you think I’m creating something?”
“Ask these incredible women, who have lost their daughters and their sons. Because your question is a very political question because you have an agenda. You’re CNN. You’re fake news.”
Trump said the numbers that Acosta referenced were wrong and asked reporters to dig into the federal prison population numbers and see how many of them are illegal aliens.
“Just see, go ahead and see,” he said.
Reporting from the White House before the press conference, Acosta referred to the angel moms but claimed, without evidence, that the mothers’ family members were “allegedly killed” by illegal aliens.
The group of angel moms held up pictures of their dead children, prompting CNN anchor Jim Sciutto to ask Acosta if he knows who the group was.
“Jim, we believe those are some of the angel moms that the president has talked so much about out on the campaign trail, at rallies and so on,” Acosta said.
“These are parents of victims who were allegedly killed by undocumented immigrants. The president likes to point to these folks who have been through some terrible experiences as evidence a wall is needed down at the border,” he said.
“I suspect, Jim, if we are seeing some of the Angel moms coming in, the president will be trying to drum up some emotional energy on this occasion, to try to sell the wall,” he added. “We have seen him do it before.”
Later, Sciutto referred the moms as “mothers who lost children, or alleged to have lost children to undocumented immigrants in this country.”
“I’m a legal immigrant ... this is my only son Ronald da Silva, who was murdered by a previously deported illegal. We need to secure our borders to protect American citizens. President Trump is completely correct on this issue,” said Agnes Gibboney.
After briefly letting just the one angel mom speak, Acosta then stood in front of her and claimed that “the facts are on the side of not calling it a national emergency, that there’s not an invasion and so on.”
“Tens of thousands of innocent Americans are killed by lethal drugs that cross our border and flood into our cities, including meth, heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl,” Trump said. “The savage gang, MS-13, now operates in at least 20 different American states, and they almost all come through our southern border. Just yesterday, an MS-13 gang member was taken into custody for a fatal shooting on a subway platform in New York City. We are removing these gang members by the thousands. But until we secure our border, they’re going to keep streaming right back in.”
He added, “Year after year, countless Americans are murdered by criminal illegal aliens. I’ve gotten to know many wonderful angel moms and dads, and families. No one should ever have to suffer the horrible heartache that they have had to endure.”
Among Trump’s guests at the speech was Debra Bissell, her daughter Heather Bissell, and her granddaughter Madison Bissell. Debra’s parents were murdered by an illegal alien in their Reno, Nevada, house.
“I will never forget, and I will fight for the memory of Gerald and Sharon that it should never happen again. Not one more American life should be lost because our nation failed to control its very dangerous border,” he said. Citing figures from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he said that officers arrested 266,000 criminal illegal immigrants in the last two years, including illegals charged or convicted of nearly 100,000 assaults, 30,000 sex crimes, and 4,000 killings or murders.
