Fox host helps Corey Lewandowski whitewash comment mocking immigrant child with Down syndrome separated from her mother
Sandra Smith: “To be clear, you were not speaking about the young girl with Down syndrome that was separated from her parents at the border?”
Published
From the June 20 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom:
SANDRA SMITH: Corey, dealing with children is a very sensitive and obviously very highly charged subject. You made a comment last night that's gotten a lot of attention in the media. Would you like to address that right now?
COREY LEWANDOWSKI (FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER): Well, I'd love to address it, because my comment was specifically about Zac [Petkanas] trying to politicize the use of children as a political football in this discussion, because the law is very clear. When parents commit crimes by coming into this country, regardless of who their children are, they are separated because we are a nation of laws. That has never changed. This is a policy that is implemented under the Obama administration, and Congress can change this. But they've chosen not to do that.
And so it doesn't matter to me if you come with one child or ten children, nobody wants to see their parents separated from their children. But the parents understand that by coming to this country illegally, they are committing a crime and there are consequences, just as there would be in any other country in the world. So let's not make this about politicizing children. Let's make it about the rules and the laws, and Congress has the ability to change that.
SMITH: But, to be clear, you were not speaking about the young girl with Down syndrome that was separated from her parents at the border?
LEWANDOWSKI: Look, I don't know the young girl that Zac referenced. I was mocking Zac, a liberal, Democrat (sic) National Committee activist who is doing nothing but politicizing the issue of making an example of one particular child.
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SMITH: There are some who saw your words last night as overlooking an individual when there are so many affected by this. Do you feel that you owe an apology of any sort?
LEWANDOWSKI: An apology? I owe an apology to the children whose parents are putting them in a position that is forcing them to be separated.