Amid the ongoing media coverage surrounding Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on illegal immigration, Thursday’s NBC Nightly News surprisingly went down to the U.S.-Mexico border to further understand on the situation. Following a news brief that mentioned a protest at the site of a Trump hotel being built in Washington D.C., anchor Lester Holt explained that even though some are “angered” by Trump’s remarks, they “are striking a cord” “for others” as they “believe he’s calling attention to a vital threat along our border.”
Border Crisis
Diaz-Balart Badgers Guest: ‘How Many Terrorist Attacks in the U.S. Have Been Carried Out' by Illegal Immigrants?
By Curtis Houck | August 5, 2014 | 5:35 PM EDT On his MSNBC show Tuesday morning, Jose Diaz-Balart invited on conservative commentator and film maker Dennis Michael Lynch to discuss a series of documentaries he has made that are critical of U.S. immigration policy and illegal immigration. From the start of the segment, it was clear that Diaz-Balart would be at odds with Lynch’s viewpoints and only grew to the point where he hounded Lynch on whether illegal immigrants have committed terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.
After airing an excerpt from one of the documentaries highlighting concerns about illegal immigrants causing a competition for jobs with American citizens, Diaz-Balart told Lynch that “there are a lot of studies from both the left and right that show that undocumented immigrants don’t take American jobs” and asked him why he thought this was not the case. [MP3 audio here; Video below]
By Connor Williams | July 10, 2014 | 11:45 AM EDT
In his defense of President Obama last night, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes made the bizarre case that too much security is the real problem at the border. The All In host used his opening segment on the July 9 edition of the program to hammer Republicans for their critique of the President's response to the border crisis.
Hayes first cited a few liberal talking points arguing that Obama really is tough on immigration. He contended that “the border has never been more secured than it is now. In some ways, the humanitarian crisis along the southwest border is actually a result of that security.” [MP3 audio here; video below]
By Connor Williams | July 9, 2014 | 6:45 PM EDT
The folks on MSNBC's The Cycle have gone on the offensive regarding immigration, moving from defending President Obama to bashing the supposed bigotry that exists on the right, naturally. On the July 9 edition of program, the panel and guest Eric Schneiderman of Salon were virtually unanimous in their criticism of the Republican Party on immigration.
Toure pointed to what he believed is a contradiction within the Republican Party: that the business community which generally supports Republicans tends to be pro-immigration reform, while the base largely opposes such reform. He them attempted to explain this dilemma by accusing the right of bigotry: [MP3 audio here; video below]
By Connor Williams | July 9, 2014 | 6:00 PM EDT
Discussing the growing immigration crisis on the July 9 edition of At This Hour with Berman and Michaela, CNN commentator Sally Kohn and host Michaela Pereira both jumped to defend President Obama from attacks from both Republicans and Democrats on his response to the flood of children arriving at the southern border.
Pereira wondered how people would dare to label the crisis as Obama’s Katrina moment, asking, “is it even fair to compare this to Katrina? You think about the fact that hundreds of people lost their lives, their homes, their livelihoods, is this a fair assessment?” Meanwhile, liberal pundit Sally Kohn went further, rejecting the entire premise that there is even a crisis to begin with: [MP3 audio here; video below]