President of the Heritage Foundation Dr. Kevin Roberts clashed with MSNBC hosts Saturday over issues surrounding a potential second Trump term and the handling of illegal immigrants.
One moment in particular went viral after Roberts set one of the hosts straight over her unwillingness to use the term “illegal aliens.”
Co-host Symone Sanders-Townsend confronted Roberts about the Heritage Foundation’s alleged plan to “institutionalize Trumpism” through a series of conservative policy proposals aimed at federal governance, Daily Caller outlined.
The two sparred over what Trump’s “using the National Guard” to conduct deportations would look like if implemented.
Roberts explained, “First of all, we need to close the border.”
Second–he continued–America must conduct “the biggest mass deportation system ever in the history of America because it is unjust and illegal and evil that more than 10 million illegal aliens have come to this country.”
“It’s imperative that we send those people back. Invite them back to come through the legal system—we love immigrants at Heritage—but we also love the rule of law.”
Sanders-Townsend interjected: “So, how do you plan to carry that out?”
“Are you talking about going door-to-door ’cause that’s what — I mean, I can read from the plan — but I think— ” she added, to which Roberts responded, “The first thing is that there’s going to be a lot of self-deportation.”
“…President Trump deserves a lot of credit for talking about this—causes people to say, ‘I don’t want to run the risk of being arrested for doing something illegal,” he said, adding at another point that the “great plans” are something “even a majority of people on the political Left agree” with.
Roberts later explained to the panel that “a lot of” illegal immigrants “are committing crimes,” then referenced the tragic murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray.
He was asked by another co-host, “What is the difference between an illegal immigrant who, unfortunately, engages in that activity?” prompting Sanders-Townsend to chime in by stating, “And we don’t like that — I wanna be clear. We don’t use the term ‘illegal.’”
“Undocumented individuals,” she clarified.
Roberts fired back: “That’s sweet. They’re illegal aliens.”
He then added that most illegal immigrants “are not even making an attempt to be legal.”
Sanders-Townsend swiftly switched the topic to abortion, accusing Roberts of “weaponizing a horrific murder to smear 11 million people.”
Nungaray’s death sparked backlash late last week after it was revealed her alleged killers had previous run-ins with Border Patrol, only to eventually be released back into the U.S.
The Associated Press’ choiceful use of the word “men” instead of “illegal immigrants” to describe the two suspected killers erupted a firestorm on X also.
The outlet’s reporting was used by thousands of local outlets, begging the question: how will the omission change public reaction?
“Not only does AP not mention that both suspects are illegal aliens who were both recently caught & released at border, they don’t even mention that they are from Venezuela, which police publicly disclosed,” Fox News’ Bill Melugin said.
“Media across the country will use AP wires/reporting on this.”
Daily Wire’s Megan Basham posted, “It is bad enough the AP does not mention in the headline that both these men were here illegally. But to omit that information in the body of the story is a level of journalistic malpractice I could not have imagined.”
“They don’t even feel they have to pretend to provide relevant reporting anymore. And that’s frankly chilling.”
