On November 25, “hundreds of migrants” traveling in a caravan approached the U.S.-Mexico border near the San Ysidro Port of Entry, “prompting federal authorities to launch tear gas in an apparent attempt to get the group to disperse,” The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. The crowd that was tear-gassed included children. According to the Union-Tribune, “Federal authorities said the migrants tried to breach the border at multiple locations, leading to a number of assaults on Customs and Border Protection personnel and dozens of arrests.”
On Monday, Fox & Friends, which spent the days leading up to the midterm elections fearmongering about the migrants in the caravan, portrayed the migrants as violent invaders “storming our border.”
The show began with the hosts talking about the “hundreds of people, many from that migrant caravan,” who approached the border and saying that Border Patrol agents fired tear gas on the crowd. They did not mention that tear gas is a non-lethal chemical weapon banned from being used in war and that children were among those CBP attacked with the gas.
Guest co-host Pete Hegseth quipped that tear-gassing unruly migrants is simply “part of the way the world works.”
Pete Hegseth says that tear gassing migrants is “part of the way the world works.” pic.twitter.com/N16Pj2n2IW
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) November 26, 2018
The show hosted Ron Colburn, president of the nonprofit Border Patrol Foundation, to discuss what co-host Steve Doocy said were “hundreds of migrants” who attacked Border Patrol agents. (Doocy gave conflicting numbers, earlier saying “50 people” approached the border and “some” in that group “threw rocks at agents.”) Colburn said that the caravan “has a core of violence to it that basically communicates a sense of entitlement.”
Colburn disputed reports that tear gas was used, claiming that the agent was actually using pepper spray, which he defended because “it’s natural. You could actually put it on your nachos and eat it.”
On Fox & Friends, Border Patrol Foundation president defends pepper spraying latinx migrants because “it’s natural. You could actually put it on your nachos and eat it.” pic.twitter.com/QLdQXqqNno
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) November 26, 2018
Thirty-eight minutes into the show, Fox & Friends finally mentioned that children were among those attacked with chemical weapons, but the hosts and their guest, NRATV’s Dan Bongino, blamed the parents for putting them in the situation to begin with.
Co-host Ainsley Earhardt compared tear-gassing children to writing a speeding ticket, telling the parents, “If you don’t want a speeding ticket, don’t speed.”
Ainsley Earhardt to women and children pepper sprayed by Border Patrol: “If you don’t want a speeding ticket, don’t speed.” pic.twitter.com/2dF3qaKLGa
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) November 26, 2018
Fox & Friends repeatedly framed the migrants as an “invasion” throughout the midterm elections. Even though the elections are over, and after a brief lull in coverage of the matter on Fox, the invasion fearmongering remains -- Bongino said today that he didn’t “mean to be hyperbolic about it, but clearly what happened yesterday were people trying to invade our border.”
NRATV's Dan Bongino: “I don’t mean to be hyperbolic about it, but clearly what happened yesterday were people trying to invade our border.” pic.twitter.com/fh8mKdoIO3
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) November 26, 2018
Fox contributor Newt Gingrich also argued that the migrant caravan is part of a “psychological war” waged against the U.S. government that is “very often guided, by the way, by American leftists who are activists and American left-wing organizations.”
Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, claimed that the left’s “goal is to find some way to embarrass the U.S. government so we can't even control our own border.” He told viewers that “we have to be prepared to stand up to that and to do whatever is necessary” or “you are not going to have a country.” He concluded, “I bet you that the elite media spends a lot more time today on what's happening on the border than they're going to spend on the death of a young American who was killed by an illegal immigrant.”
Newt Gingrich says there's a “war on the border” financed by “American leftists” and the choice is “you are either going to have a country and have a border or you are not going to have a country.” pic.twitter.com/OfAlc4NZTv
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) November 26, 2018
The Fox & Friends hosts continued their laser-like focus on what the New York Post called “border chaos” throughout the third hour. They picked up where Gingrich left off and attempted to shame “the mainstream media elite” for covering Border Patrol’s tear-gassing of children and other migrants instead of the murder of Amanda Ferguson, a Texan teacher killed in a hit-and-run accident by an undocumented immigrant.
Fox & Friends is following their caravan coverage with a story of an undocumented immigrant charged in a lethal hit and run, and trying to shame the media into covering that. pic.twitter.com/XS7jLzuxbk
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) November 26, 2018
The tone of Fox & Friends’ caravan coverage this morning was clear. As Media Matters’ Matt Gertz noted, “It is impossible to overstate how much Fox & Friends wants its audience (which includes President Trump) to be panicked about the situation at the border this morning.” Considering that it was Fox & Friends coverage that spurred Trump into sending the military to the border in the first place, and that was far from the first time he has directly responded to the show, the cruel inhumanity could be about to get a lot worse.