News reader fights back tears while reporting on babies being sent to 'tender age' shelters
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow cried on air as she reported migrant children being sent to ‘tender age’ shelters after they’re separated from their parents at the U.S. border.
According to a Huffington Post report, Maddow cried live on air Tuesday, June 19, while covering a news story from The Associated Press about what's happening to the youngest migrants who are separated from their parents at the southern U.S. border.
The MSNBC host said "this is incredible,” as she began to read a report on the US government taking babies and young children from their parents as they attempted to cross the border from Mexico into America illegally.
The report from the Associated Press that Maddow was unable to read revealed young children were being held in three facilities in Texas. She tried one more time to read the report but she was again too emotional.
“I think I’m going to have to hand this off. Sorry, that does it for us tonight. We’ll see you tomorrow,” she said before abruptly ending her show minutes earlier than planned
Rachel Maddow chokes up and cries on air as she struggles to deliver news that migrant babies and toddlers have been sent to "tender age" shelters pic.twitter.com/O6crm8cvyR
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) June 20, 2018
After the anchor had regained her composure off-air, she tweeted that she was "sorry" and wrote what she originally intended to say, adding: "I apologize for losing it there for a moment. Not the way I intended that to go, not by a mile."
Ugh, I'm sorry.
— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018
If nothing else, it is my job to actually be able to speak while I'm on TV.
What I was trying to do -- when I suddenly couldn't say/do anything -- was read this lede:
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More than 2,000 children have been taken away from their parents and placed in detention centers after their families were caught trying to cross the border illegally, as Huffington Post reported.
All from this Associated Press story that broke while I was on the air tonight, but which I was unable to read on the air:https://t.co/2VBLTVxvQq
— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018
Again, I apologize for losing it there for a moment. Not the way I intended that to go, not by a mile.
Doctors and lawyers who have visited the shelters said the facilities were fine, clean and safe, but the kids have no idea where their parents are and were hysterical, crying and acting out.
“The thought that they are going to be putting such little kids in an institutional setting? I mean it is hard for me to even wrap my mind around it,” said Kay Bellor, vice president for programs at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, “Toddlers are being detained.”
— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018
5/6
U.S. government officials have denied the policy is inhumane or cruel, despite receiving widespread criticism from religious groups, the United Nations and both Republican and Democratic lawmakers.
The government also plans to open a fourth shelter to house hundreds of young migrant children in Houston. Read more on our Twitter account @amomama_usa.
