At a clip of about one bald-faced lie or distortion every 11 seconds, Univision Washington correspondent Pablo Gato evidently decided the murderous attack on two mosques in New Zealand by a white supremacist was just the moment to pull out all the stops in his anti-Trump repertoire.
Within the first 44 seconds of his report on the rampage, Gato managed to put words in President Trump’s mouth (reporting that Trump does not see white supremacism as a threat at all, when what the President actually said was he doesn’t see it as a “rising threat”) as well as misrepresent Anti-Defamation League findings (reporting a 182% increase in white supremacist groups in the U.S., when the organization’s cited increase is not in the number of such groups but in what the ADL classifies as their “distribution of propaganda”).
During the same 44 seconds, Gato also included Univision’s classic smear that “Trump began his campaign by saying that Mexicans are criminals and rapists” (the network’s go-to, original distortion). Gato also dishonestly told Univision’s viewers that instead of condemning the white supremacists in Charlottesville, (which the President did, repeatedly and specifically denouncing them as “bad people”) Trump had praised them as “very fine people.”
PABLO GATO, CORRESPONDENT, UNIVISIÓN: Just hours after an attack by a white supremacist against two mosques in New Zealand which claimed 49 deaths
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I don´t really, I think it’s a, uh
GATO: Trump said that he does not think that white supremacists are a threat.
FEDERICO DE JESÚS, DEMOCRAT ANALYST: I believe that the President does not openly condemn white supremacism because it is part of his base.
GATO: The Anti-Defamation League says that in the last two years, white supremacist organizations in United States grew by 182%.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: They're bringing crime, they´re rapists, and some
GATO: Trump began his campaign by saying that Mexicans are criminals and rapists, and described as very fine people the white supremacists who took part in the violent incidents of Charlottesville, Virginia
Democrat analyst Federico de Jesús served as Gato’s accomplice in falsely stating that President Trump had not condemned white supremacism. Two days after the death of Heather Hyer and two policemen in Charlottesville, President Trump explicitly condemned white supremacists, stating “racism is evil and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups.”
In the conclusion to his report, Gato cited a May 2017 joint Department of Homeland Security and FBI Intelligence Bulletin in a crass attempt to paint white supremacists as (opposed to Islamic jihadists) as the greatest terror threat facing the country today. Though it is true, according to the report, that white supremacist extremists carried out more domestic attacks (26) between 2000 and 2016, these attacks (killing 23 racial and ethnic minority victims) were obviously far below the thousands killed by jihadi terrorists in the U.S. during the same period.
At the international level, both the number and lethality of white supremacist terrorist attacks literally pales in comparison to that of radical Islamic terrorism. Christianophobia, as opposed to Islamophobia, is an infinitely graver problem, with Open Doors USA reporting that in 2018 alone over 4000 Christians were killed for faith-related reasons.
Below is the complete transcript of the above-referenced, March 15, 2019 report on Univision Noticias.
UNIVISION NEWS
3/15/2019 2min 12sec
PABLO GATO, CORRESPONDENT, UNIVISIÓN: Just hours after an attack by a white supremacist against two mosques in New Zealand which claimed 49 deaths
PRESIDENTE DONALD TRUMP: I don´t really, I think it’s a, uh
GATO: Trump said that he does not think that white supremacists are a threat.
FEDERICO DE JESÚS, DEMOCRATIC ANALYST: I believe that the President does not openly condemn white supremacism because it is part of his base.
GATO: The Anti-Defamation League says that in the last two years, white supremacist organizations in United States grew by 182%.
PRESIDENTE TRUMP: They’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some
GATO: Trump began his campaign by saying that Mexicans are criminals and rapists, and described as very fine people, the white supremacists who took part in the violent incidents of Charlottesville, Virginia which claimed one death. The President speaks of an invasion at the South.
PRESIDENTE TRUMP: People hate the word invasion, but that’s what it is
GATO: He even repeated it today. The New Zealand terrorist also used the word invasion in reference to immigrants and said that Trump is a symbol of the white unity. Democratic Congressman Joaquín Castro said that Trump uses a rhetoric of intolerance which can contribute to violence even if that is not the intention.
DE JESÚS: When you use hysteria, exaggeration and the demonization of others, not only immigrants but his political opponents, people of other races and beliefs, to manipulate politics, it is no surprise then that unfortunate incidents occur
KELLYANNE CONWAY, PRESIDENTIAL COUNSEL: This individual, this, um, killer
GATO: The only one responsible for these attacks is the murderer who carried them out, said the White House. The truth is that authorities do perceive a clear threat, and have reinforced security at mosques.
ARTURO ACEVEDO, HOUSTON POLICE CHIEF: We have 33 mosques in the city of Houston. We have visited each one of these locations and we also have patrols.
GATO: The authorities say that white supremacist groups have carried out the most terrorist attacks in this country for the past 16 years and add that they are at a 20-year high point. In Washington Pablo Gato, Univision.
