ABC was eager to accuse President Trump of jailing toddlers on Monday morning’s Good Morning America. Chief National Correspondent Matt Gutman hyped a report from The New York Times published this past weekend which relied on anonymous accounts from border agents detailing rampant disease and unhygienic conditions in one immigrant holding facility in Clint, Texas.
Gutman began his report by scolding the President for “lashing out” at the paper for “exposing” the horrible conditions, where babies were “locked up” in “basically jail:”
The president going as far as saying that conditions at facilities like these and even child detention centers are, quote, much better than where these migrants came from. Having been to one facility housing children in Texas, I can tell you it is jarring to see children as young as toddlers locked up in what is basically jail. President Trump spent part of his weekend lashing out at The New York Times for exposing that child detention facility in Texas.
Gutman hyped the Times' report detailing “nightmarish conditions," called, “Hungry, Scared and Sick: Inside the Migrant Detention Center in Clint,TX,” where even border agents “cried” because of the desperate conditions and rampant disease:
The joint investigation from The New York Times and The El Paso Times sources dozens of unnamed border patrol agents who saw outbreaks of scabies, shingles and chicken pox spreading among the hundreds of children who were being held in cramped cells...Conditions that reportedly left some border patrol officers in tears.
While hyping the anonymous sources, Gutman noted that when he visited this facility two weeks ago, he was repeatedly denied camera access inside. Gutman kept reminding viewers of the “horrific conditions” while trying to discredit the acting DHS Secretary as lying about the cleanliness. Gutman even went so far as to suggest children weren’t being fed:
KEVIN MCALEENAN: There's adequate food and water because the facility is cleaned every day. We have no evidence that children went hungry.
GUTMAN: Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan dismissing recent scrutiny over health conditions at the centers but acknowledging there is a real crisis. Now, the border patrol says the number of children at its facilities is down by about 90% and when we saw that facility in Texas, the numbers were low. Still, it is jarring to see children with their faces pressed against the glass sleeping on mats on the floor, all of them looking miserable. Some of them crying and it's questionable that the amount of food they're getting for stays averaging up to ten days is actually adequate, Michael.
Read the full transcript below:
Good Morning America
7/8/2019
7:08:43-7:12:15AM
MICHAEL STRAHAN: We’re going to move on now to the latest on the battle over the border. President Trump is blasting accounts of appalling conditions at border facilities, defending the detention centers that are housing children. Our Chief National Correspondent Matt Gutman who has reported extensively from the border has more from a detention facility near San Diego. Good morning, Matt.
MATT GUTMAN: Hey, good morning, Michael. The president going as far as saying that conditions at facilities like these and even child detention centers are, quote, much better than where these migrants came from. Having been to one facility housing children in Texas, I can tell you it is jarring to see children as young as toddlers locked up in what is basically jail. President Trump spent part of his weekend lashing out at The New York Times for exposing that child detention facility in Texas.
TRUMP: I think The New York Times story is a fabrication.
GUTMAN: That Times piece published Saturday details nightmarish conditions in this migrant facility in Clint, Texas. The joint investigation from The New York Times and The El Paso Times sources dozens of unnamed border patrol agents who saw outbreaks of scabies, shingles and chicken pox spreading among the hundreds of children who were being held in cramped cells. The stench of the children's dirty clothing so strong it spread to the agents' own clothing. Conditions that reportedly left some border patrol officers in tears. But President Trump refuting the report even adding that he thinks migrants might actually prefer the conditions at detention centers.
TRUMP: People that came from unbelievable poverty, that had no water, they had no anything where they came from, those are people that are very happy with what's going on because relatively speaking they're in much better shape right now.
GUTMAN: No pictures from inside the facility accompanied The Times article and when ABC News toured the site two weeks ago our repeated request to bring in cameras denied.
GUTMAN: Any chance to actually take these cameras inside to show people what's going on?
BORDER AGENT: No, it's a pen and pad tour as we talked about.
GUTMAN: Those images from the department of homeland security office of the inspector general taken at similar Texas border patrol facilities, horrific overcrowding. Faces pressed against cell windows. Allowed only those thin mylar sheets and offered limit to no showers.
KEVIN MCALEENAN: There's adequate food and water because the facility is cleaned every day. We have no evidence that children went hungry.
GUTMAN: Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan dismissing recent scrutiny over health conditions at the centers but acknowledging there is a real crisis. Now, the border patrol says the number of children at its facilities is down by about 90% and when we saw that facility in Texas, the numbers were low. Still, it is jarring to see children with their faces pressed against the glass sleeping on mats on the floor, all of them looking miserable. Some of them crying and it's questionable that the amount of food they're getting for stays averaging up to ten days is actually adequate, Michael.
STRAHAN: Yeah Matt it's hard to see those images here in the studio. And these deportation raids they could start at any time.
GUTMAN: Right the President said the moratorium that was two weeks long for those deportation raids is now over. A DHS official said they're preparing to deport up to a million people but officials tell me that's not even possible but we could start seeing raids of about hundreds or maybe even thousands of people, Michael.
STRAHAN: All right, Matt, thank you so much.
