White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders offered a vigorous defense of the president’s comments that certain illegal immigrants are “animals.” Sanders said Trump was only talking about MS-13 gang members.
“If the media and liberals want to defend MS-13, they’re more than welcome to,” said Sanders. “It took an animal to stab a man 100 times and decapitate him and rip his heart out … Frankly, I think that the term ‘animal’ doesn’t go far enough.”
Sanders also smacked down media speculation that Trump had been referring to immigrants more broadly.
“The president was very clearly referring to MS-13 gang members who enter the country illegally and whose deportations are hamstrung by our laws,” she said. “This is one of the most vicious and deadly gangs that operates by the motto of rape, control and kill.”
On Wednesday Trump ignited a small firestorm after referring to members of the gang as “animals” in televised remarks at the White House.
“We have people coming into the country, or trying to come in — we’re stopping a lot of them,”said Trump from the Cabinet Room. “You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people, these are animals, and we’re taking them out of the country at a level and at a rate that’s never happened before.”
Though the broader conversation was about MS-13 gang members, who Trump has called animals in the past, many in the media have argued they represent his broader opinions on immigrants.
You can watch Sanders’ comments above.