The Department of Homeland Security is stretching for data to back up the president’s assertions. (Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)
“Think of it, 300 people. You know, we’re getting a lot of heat because, I was saying, there were some bad people in that caravan. Right? So we checked, 300 people.”
— President Trump, remarks during a campaign rally in Huntington, W.Va., Nov. 2, 2018
“You know, every time I say, ‘You have some rough people in there,’ the media says, ‘How dare you. We want to see proof.’ Well, they gave you 300 names yesterday. These are rough, rough people in many cases and if they’re allowed to break through our borders, only larger and bigger, we have emboldened these people.”
— Trump, remarks at a rally in Macon, Ga., Nov. 4
President Trump often makes pronouncements and assertions, and then his aides scramble to try to fill in the blanks. During his rallies before the midterm elections, the president all but acknowledged that he had been claiming the “caravan” of migrants traveling from Honduras contained criminal elements without evidence. But then the Department of Homeland Security came to the rescue.
View the complete November 9 article by Glenn Kessler on The Washington Post website here.