The outrage continues after border patrol agents deployed tear gas after migrants in the caravan stormed the U.S.-Mexico border and threw rocks, but the outrage seems to only be directed at President Donald Trump. This is despite it being revealed similar tactics were used while President Barack Obama was in office.
While discussing the issue on “The View,” some of the hosts expressed disbelief when Meghan McCain and a story from National Review pointed out how tear gas was used almost monthly at the border under Obama.
“Is there any evidence of that? Do you have a photo like that when Obama was in office?” Joy Behar asked, referring to the highly-circulated photo of a woman and two young girls running away from tear gas.
“Homeland Security data does validate that, that it happened multiple times, more than once a month in fact during the Obama years,” McCain replied.
Co-host Sunny Hostin was not having any of the facts.
“The last I checked President Obama is no longer in office,” she said. “President Trump is in office. And he's destroying the country and this ‘but Obama’ defense doesn't work for me.”
“The Trump Administration has secretly continued to separate kids from their families,” Hostin continued. “The Obama administration never did that! The ACLU says that kind of separation is unprecedented. So this whole, but Obama did it, but Obama did it, I don't care what Obama did. I care what Trump is doing right here right now!”
McCain then said the main issue is how the mainstream media did not extensively cover incidents like this when Obama was president.
“If you’re infuriated now, you should’ve been infuriated then,” she added.
After the incident at the border last week, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen saidthe violence by the migrants should not have come as a surprise.
“First, the violence we saw at the border was entirely predictable. This caravan, unlike previous caravans, had already entered #Mexico violently and attacked border police in two other countries,” Nielsen said. “I refuse to believe that anyone honestly maintains that attacking law enforcement with rocks and projectiles is acceptable. It is shocking that I have to explain this, but officers can be seriously or fatally injured in such attacks. Self-defense isn’t debatable for most law-abiding Americans.”
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