A New York Times reporter among the slew of people who shared a misleading video clip of President Donald Trump deleted his post, saying he “didn’t really read” it.
“Didn’t really read @markmobility’s out-of-context tweet about Trump’s ‘animal’ remark,” Glenn Thrush, a Washington correspondent with the Times, wrote on Twitter.
Thrush, who was removed from the White House beat after accusations of sexual misconduct, did not apologize for sharing the clip, but said that he deleted his original post, which included no context about Trump’s comments actually being about MS-13 gang members.
Mark Elliott, with the nonprofit Economic Mobility Corp., originally shared the misleading video with the caption “Trump on people asking for asylum ‘These aren’t people. These are animals.’”
The president was actually responding to a comment by Fresno Sheriff Margaret Mims on MS-13 gang members, speaking during a 2018 roundtable on sanctuary cities and immigration in California.
“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,” Trump told Mims and the other attendees.
“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.”
Trump addressed the comments again several days later, telling reporters: “I’m referring to the MS-13 gangs that are coming in. If you look a little bit further on in the tape, you’ll see that. So I’m actually surprised you’re asking this question because most people got it right. MS-13, these are animals.”
Today @realDonaldTrump said those seeking asylum in the US “Aren’t people. These are animals.”
That language is dangerous. It’s the precursor to things history eventually shames us about.
Don’t be fooled. This is the kind of person he is referring to ???? https://t.co/WjNstOZLSD
— KarlaZabs (@karlazabs) April 6, 2019
Buzzfeed reporter Karla Zabludovsky, former CBS host Dan Rather, and Democratic presidential candidates Beto O’Rourke, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Pete Buttigieg were among the people who claimed Trump were calling asylum seekers “animals.”
CNN reporter Manu Raju, MSNBC host Chris Hayes, and New York Times op-ed columnist Jamelle Bouie also fell for the misleading clip, sharing it to their followers on Twitter.
Hayes shared a post that called Trump a “Nazi” while Zabludovsky and Bouie were among those who thought the clip was recent, not from last year.
Bouie told his followers: “Do you remember when trump first said something like this and there was a lot of parsing over whether he actually called asylum-seekers and migrants ‘animals?'”
Most of those who circulated the clip have not apologized or retracted the information.
Now that guests on cable news networks and a presidential candidate are referring to these remarks as new, think it’s important to point out they were made in May 2018, not yesterday. Also, as Snopes pointed out then, Trump was referring to MS-13 membershttps://t.co/LOeAdRd3wx https://t.co/rqPiaa8dks
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) April 6, 2019
Other reporters, though, sought to correct the misinformation.
Daily Caller reporter Amber Athey noted that top officials from the Obama administration spread the misleading claim while debunking the edited clip.
Yashar Ali, a contributor to New York magazine, aleted followers: “Now that guests on cable news networks and a presidential candidate are referring to these remarks as new, think it’s important to point out they were made in May 2018, not yesterday.”
And Dana Lind, a reporter at the openly anti-Trump Vox website, wrote: “This tweet is fake news. For one thing, the remark is from May 2018. For another thing, while there was a whole controversy then about whether Trump was referring to MS13 members or to unauthorized immigrants, he most certainly was NOT referring specifically to asylum-seekers.”
