Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s Thursday press briefing did not exactly go as planned. When questions about separating immigrant children from their parents and detaining them were asked, Sanders tried to follow the Trump doctrine of deflect, deny, and blame Democrats. One reporter, however, was not having it and stood up to her in a moment of true heroism.
Wow – @BrianKarem just brought it to @PressSec Sarah Sanders in today's briefing on the issue of separating children from their parents at the border. "You have children, Sarah."
— Philip Rosenstein (@parosenstein) June 14, 2018
White House correspondent for Playboy and CNN analyst Brian Karem could not sit by and watch Sanders lie about some “loophole” that Democrats refuse to address that requires children to be detained in inhumane conditions away from their parents. Finally standing up to the lies and excuses, Karem leaped from his chair and began calling Sanders to task.
‘You’re a parent! Don’t you have any empathy? Come on, Sarah, you’re a parent. Don’t you have any empathy for what these people are going through? They have less than you do. And you’re standing there telling us it’s a law!’
WHY couldn't the rest of you in the briefing build on @BrianKarem momentum in holding @PressSec to account? Bless him. You shift to Crimea when the room is appropriately piling on her for her admin's cruelty to CHILDREN?
— Jennie Fauls (@ThatJennie) June 14, 2018
After Sanders put on her schoolteacher voice and told Karem to “settle down,” she accused him of just wanting some TV time with his outburst. Karem reminded her what her job is supposed to be.
‘It’s not about that. It’s about you answering the questions, Sarah.’
Thank you for asking her about this at the briefing. What they're doing to these families is inhumane.
— Carrie Gallagher (@lovablemarketer) June 14, 2018
Two points need to be made absolutely clear here. There is no law that requires children to be separated from their parents when crossing the border. Trump and his spokespeople have pushed this idea because of thousands unaccompanied minors who crossed the border during Obama’s presidency in 2014 and were taken to camps while decisions could be made about how to handle the unprecedented situation. These were not children separated from their parents; they came without their parents.
https://twitter.com/MRSEADRILL/status/1007344339171897345
Second, Sanders insisted that the new administration’s policy is about their stance on “law and order.” However, the parents whose children are being ripped away from them are not coming here illegally. They are immigrants seeking asylum who have reported immediately to immigration officials as they are legally required to do.
Instead of finding help or empathy, they’re being detained, families are being separated, and no promises or plans to reunite these families are being communicated to them.
And in today's press briefing just now, an impassioned reporter, asking @PressSec how she, as a mother, can countenance these acts, Sanders merely accused the reporter of trying to get more TV time.
— James Beaman (@JamieBeaman) June 14, 2018
To see Karem’s heroic moment in standing up to history’s most dishonest press secretary and calling her to task for covering up the cruelty of Trump’s administration, see the video below. The exchange begins at 9:34.
Featured image via YouTube
