Rick Santorum, former Republican senator and current doofus on CNN, claimed that the parents brining their children across the border have already inflicted more trauma on their kids than Trump’s baby jails. Rick Santorum has lost what little bit of a mind he had, and his entire segment was filled with lies and errors that CNN’s Alisyn Camerota was constantly forced to correct. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.
Transcript:
Former Republican senator and current CNN I guess pundit, you would call him, Rick Santorum, has absolutely no idea how immigration law and policies seems to be working in the United States. During a recent appearance with CNN’s Alisyn Camerota, not only did Rick Santorum get every fact about the administration’s policies wrong, but he also managed to somehow blame the migrant parents coming into this country for the fact that their children are languishing in Donald Trump’s baby jails. Take a look.
Alisyn Camerota:
Okay. Great. The last numbers that we had were that it was 2,000 plus, okay? And guess what? They’re not even telling us the actual numbers because it seems like they don’t know. Do you know of a process whereby these parents will ever see their children again?Rick Santorum:
You know, the answer to that question is that, yes, some parents will and some parents won’t, because some parents have already been deported-Alisyn Camerota:
Right. I mean, just get your head around that.Rick Santorum:
… as we know. That’s been reported. And those-Alisyn Camerota:
Just get your head around that. These parents don’t know where their kids are. Can you imagine not knowing where your kids are?Rick Santorum:
Well, I understand that, but let’s just … The parents are not blameless in this situation. The parents came across the border illegally and knowing full well that they were putting their children and themselves in jeopardy by doing so. By the way, most of the-Alisyn Camerota:
Not really, Rick. Some of them were asylum seekers. Some of them were asylum seekers.Rick Santorum:
Yeah.Alisyn Camerota:
That’s legal.Rick Santorum:
Asylum seekers are not separated.Alisyn Camerota:
Yes, they are.Rick Santorum:
That’s been very clear.Alisyn Camerota:
Yes, they are.Rick Santorum:
No, they’re not.Alisyn Camerota:
Yes, they are.Rick Santorum:
If you come to the border and make an appeal for asylum, you are not separated-Alisyn Camerota:
Yep.Rick Santorum:
… from your children.Alisyn Camerota:
Rick, no. I wish that that were true. They have been separated. We’ve heard John Kelly say that. We’ve heard Stephen Miller say that. It was a zero tolerance policy. Everybody would be separated from their children. That’s zero tolerance. It was supposed to be a deterrent, and it has blown up into this, you know, human crisis.Rick Santorum:
Look. There’s no doubt that it’s blown up to human crisis and the media has reported on that in many ways, but what the media doesn’t report on is the human crisis of these children coming to the border themselves. I mean, the fact is that most of these folks are coming from Central America, not from Mexico, and they’ve made a 2,000 mile journey through Mexico. They had to cross the Mexican border-Alisyn Camerota:
Yes.Rick Santorum:
… which is no picnic.Alisyn Camerota:
Yes.Rick Santorum:
The idea that putting these children in detention is the worst thing that’s happened to them since they’ve made this long trek, I’m not sure that is necessarily the case. These kids have been traumatized a lot-Alisyn Camerota:
Yes. That’s how desperate-Rick Santorum:
… over the past several months in getting here.Alisyn Camerota:
We agree.
You know, it’s really hard to figure out where to start with Rick Santorum here because, again, he got every single thing wrong. He came out here trying to be a spokesman for the administration, I guess, and then flat out lied about everything that’s happening in this country.
Credit where it’s due, right? Alisyn Camerota did a phenomenal job of trying to point out every single time Rick Santorum said something that wasn’t true. That was a full-time job during this interview because the man wouldn’t stop saying things that were blatantly false. But back to his point that it’s the parents’ fault, they share some responsibility. These kids were pre-traumatized before we took them away from their parents and stuck them in Donald Trump’s baby jails.
You know what’s really traumatizing for kids, Mr. Santorum? Growing up in areas with such bad gang violence that your family is willing to grab everything you own, what they can hold in their hands, in the middle of the night, run out of their homes, and try to seek a better life. I have a sinking suspicion that living in those conditions is far more traumatizing than crossing a couple borders. But nothing is more traumatizing than ripping a kid, as we’ve seen reports, sometimes as young as eight months old, away from their parents, and as you correctly pointed out, one of the few true things you said, some of these kids aren’t going to see their parents again. The parents have been deported. They’ve been shipped back home. The federal government has no answer for these kids or the parents on how they’re ever going to reunite them. They did not do a good job keeping records, they did not keep track of everyone, and many of these kids will never see their parents again.
You, Mr. Santorum, have audacity to sit there on CNN and defend this horrible act being committed by this administration, a fact that you won’t even own up to. You’re trying to say that this isn’t their policy. It’s not happening to everyone. Well, it is. And it is their policy. It’s right there in black and white, if you took a few seconds to go find it. What’s happening in this country is appalling. But what’s more appalling is that these networks keep putting on idiots like Rick Santorum to come out there and try to whitewash Donald Trump’s baby jails because he thinks maybe it’s going to help him in his political future. Trust me, Rick, when all the dust settles off this, no one is ever going to want to hire you, much less vote for you, again.
