President Trump compares murder victim to Tom Selleck
President Donald Trump came under fire on Friday after he made a joke about a slain American. At an event where Trump discussed immigration he brought along what he called “Angel Families.”
These were people whose relatives were killed by undocumented immigrants. According to a video tweet by a journalist named Aaron Rupar, the President joked that a murder victim looked like Tom Selleck.
Trump’s administration has faced widespread criticism for its treatment of migrant families recently. To address the issue of immigration the President held a ceremony supposed to honor Americans "killed by criminal illegal aliens".at the White House.
While introducing one of the “Angel Families” Agnes Gibboney, whose son Ron was murdered, Trump chose that moment to make a joke. As Gibboney held her son’s image, the President joked that Ron looked like Tom Selleck but better looking.
Many of those family members at the event also got to speak up. They were seen holding large photos of their late loved ones with some of them signed by the President.
The live-streamed event came about after Trump’s administration received intense pressure over his immigration policy. The policy has separated at least 2,000 children from their parents at the border.
"This is Tom Selleck, except better looking. Right? Better looking."
President Donald Trump, Twitter, June 22, 2018
Trump claimed that the US laws on the issue were the "weakest in the history of the world." The event was condemned as "tacky", "disgusting" and "fear-mongering about brown people."
Many of his statements were exposed as false or misleading. Others questioned why the victim’s photos all appeared to bear the President's signature.
People felt that the families were being "used." During the event, Trump claimed that the victim’s deaths had been ignored by the media.
He stated, "These are the stories that Democrats and people that are weak on immigration don't want to discuss, hear, see or talk about. They don't talk about the death and destruction caused by people who shouldn't be here."
The President also praised several immigration law enforcement officers for their bravery before joking that they were "good-looking people." Trump rejected studies that suggested foreign immigrants commit crime at a lower rate than the rest of the US population.
He accurately quoted statistics from a 2011 government study. This included that there had been an estimated 25,000 arrests of illegal immigrants for homicide.
However, he failed to mention that it covered a 55-year period since 1955. He claimed that 63,000 US citizens had been killed by undocumented immigrants since 9/1, which is a quarter of all homicides.
This was also a false statement. Later he tweeted a picture of the event with the words captioning the image saying they would not rest until their border was secure, their citizens safe, and they finally end the immigration crisis once and for all.
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