GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (CO-HOST): The latest now on that migrant caravan making its way through Mexico. President Trump is making it a rallying cry ahead of the midterm elections, firing up his base with false claims and by calling it a national emergency. The president spoke at a rally in Texas last night where early voting has already begun. Our senior White House correspondent, Cecilia Vega, has the story. Good morning, Cecilia.
CECILIA VEGA (ABC NEWS CORESPONDENT): Hey, George, good morning to you. Let me just give you some perspective here. The so-called national emergency actually really represents about .06 percent of all the undocumented people already in this country, so we are talking about a very small fraction of people here. But the president is hoping that this is a winning strategy, the same strategy that helped him win the White House, to help give Republicans an edge in the midterms, and that strategy is stoking fears about immigration. Overnight, President Trump banking on that migrant caravan being a winning applause line on the campaign trail.
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VEGA: He's using it to rally his base and scare voters to the polls, and he's doing it with false claims like this.
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DONALD TRUMP (UNITED STATES PRESIDENT): You know how the caravan started, does everybody know what this means? I think the Democrats had something to do with it.
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VEGA: There is no evidence that Democrats, or anyone, paid the migrants to make the treacherous trek north. He also keeps repeating this false claim about so-called “Middle Easterners,” offering no proof to back it up.
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TRUMP: Take your camera, go into the middle and search. You're going to find MS-13, you're going to find Middle Eastern, you're going to find everything. And guess what? We're not allowing them in our country.
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