From the October 22 edition of CNN's New Day:
CNN host calls out Matt Schlapp for “fearmongering” about migrant caravan as “marauding bands” of invaders
Alisyn Camerota: “The fearmongering that something is happening in another country, but that there are marauding bands of people coming to our country, it's just not a fact”
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
Video file
MATT SCHLAPP (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE UNION): Who's paying for the caravan? Alisyn, who's paying for the caravan? I'd like to know. I think you should put a reporter on it. Who's paying for it? You think --
ALISYN CAMEROTA (CO-HOST): Matt -- oh, we have a reporter on it. Let me answer your question --
SCHLAPP: Let me ask, do you think this is spontaneous?
CAMEROTA: No, you asked me a question, let me answer it. We have journalists along the way. This is not -- no one is paying for the caravan. Poor people are marching 2,700 miles, Matt --
SCHLAPP: No. Nope.
...
SCHLAPP: Nobody in their right mind things four or five thousand people spontaneously got together, met on a corner in Guatemala, and decided to take this long trip, as you just described. This is a very harrowing trip. It takes huge logistical support --
CAMEROTA: Matt, you don't -- yes, you don't think that they are motivated because of the conditions in their country?
SCHLAPP: I think -- what I think is wonderful about them is they know America is a better place to live, and I think it's a better place to live as well. One reason it's a better place to live is that we are a nation of laws and you have to follow the law, and unfortunately, because of the liberal judges and other people that intercede, including George Soros, we have too much chaos at our southern border.
...
SCHLAPP: When you come to this southern border, if you grab a child, any child, and come to the border, guess what? You have a large chance of getting legal status to stay in this country.
CAMEROTA: That's just not true. You just don't automatically -- have more faith in what our folks, our Americans at the border are doing.
SCHLAPP: I have great faith.
CAMEROTA: They don't just blindly give you asylum. There's a huge vetting process and you know that. But Matt, I think that the point of all of this --
SCHLAPP: Can I talk?
CAMEROTA: No. Because I think that the larger issue here is the fearmongering. The fearmongering --
SCHLAPP: Is that I'm what?
CAMEROTA: The fearmongering.
SCHLAPP: There's no fearmongering.
CAMEROTA: Yes, Matt --
SCHLAPP: Is there 4,000 people trying to come to our country illegally or not, Alisyn? Is that fearmongering? Is that true?
CAMEROTA: I don't know. They're 2,500 miles away, I don't think 4,000 people are going to make it. You know the attrition that happens as they walk across Mexico because they're desperate. They're not at our border. They're at Mexico's southern border.
SCHLAPP: Do you think they're trying to get to our border or not? I think they are. They say they are. I don't think they're lying.
CAMEROTA: Maybe, I don't know that they're going to be able to make it, Matt. And, by the way, when they do make it, we have laws and we vet people. And so, the fearmongering that something is happening in another country, but that there are marauding bands of people coming to our country, it's just not a fact.
SCHLAPP: It is a fact.
...
CAMEROTA: I believe that lots of people think that there is a problem with catch and release, and that that's what they're trying to fix. But drumming up fear right now --
SCHLAPP: It's not fear, it's truth. It's truth.
CAMEROTA: -- That there are thousands of marauding people who are --
SCHLAPP: There are thousands. There are 5,000. 4,000.
CAMEROTA: -- At the southern border of Mexico, and, you know the attrition that happens, by the time they get here, it won't be. And then they're going to follow a legal process of seeking asylum, and a fraction of them will get asylum.
...
CAMEROTA: Matt, everybody agrees that people should follow the law. But listen, I like what you're saying, you and I will find out the exact number of people --
SCHLAPP: Please. Because I know I didn't use the right number because I didn't look at it before I went on the air.
Previously: