President Trump revisited his infamous comments at the start of his presidential campaign casting illegal immigrants as ‘criminals’ and ‘rapists’ as he went off-script at a roundtable on Thursday.
Trump eventually threw out his remarks at the West Virginia event, commenting that what he was supposed to say at the tax reform event was frankly pretty ‘boring’ as he relived his November 2016 election.
During a tirade on immigration that preceded the unconventional move, Trump said it’s impossible to know the backgrounds of people coming across the border illicitly, and whether they are ‘thugs’ or ‘killers’ and ‘murderers.’
Talking about the dangerous journey to the U.S. from Mexico, he said it’s now been proven that ‘women are raped at levels nobody’s ever seen before’ as he cited a report that he said came out yesterday.
OFF SCRIPT: President Trump chucked his notes on Thursday as he went on an off-script riff about illegal immigration during a tax roundtable
President Trump revisited his infamous comments at the start of his presidential campaign casting illegal immigrants as ‘criminals’ and ‘rapists’ at the event
OUT THE WINDOW: Trump tossed out his remarks after his immigration rant, commenting on how ‘boring’ the remarks he was supposed to deliver were
Trump did not credit a specific report or agency with the rape statistic.
His White House spokeswoman said after the speech that he was referring to an LA Times article from Tuesday.
The article detailed the plight of the migrants from Honduras making their way to the U.S. in the highly-publicized caravan.
The article said, ‘Robberies, rapes and assaults — perpetrated by smugglers, cartel members and Mexican immigration agents — are common. In one incident in 2010, 72 kidnapped migrants were killed by a cartel in northern Mexico.’
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in statement after DailyMail.com requested clarification on Trump’s comments that the violence is a ‘well-established fact’ and that ‘women and young girls are brutally victimized on the journey north.’
Trump infamously opened his 2016 campaign with a speech that characterized illegal immigrants coming into the United States via the porous southern border as criminals and rapists.
‘They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people,’ he said at the 2015 event.
Trump argued afterward that his comments had been taken out of context, and he was only talking about drug smugglers and illegal immigrants who’ve committed violent crimes.
He recalled the remarks on Thursday as he spoke at roundtable that was supposed to be a tax reform event.
Still fixated on the caravan of illegal immigrants that were making their way to the U.S. border before the bulk were stopped by Mexican officials, the president veered back to his original campaign comments.
‘Remember my opening remarks at Trump Tower? When I opened, everybody said, “Oh, he’s so tough.” I used the word rape,’ he said. ‘And yesterday, it came out, this journey coming up, women are raped at levels nobody’s ever seen before. They don’t want to mention that.’
Minutes prior he had mentioned the caravan of 1,200 people directly that had been reduced down to 200 people, claiming it had contained ‘thousands’ of illegal immigrants before Mexico broke it up.
Trump went on to complain about illegal immigrants who come to the U.S. and have their children in the country while they await legally-mandated court adjudications.
‘This is our country. If you have a baby on our land, congratulations that baby is a United States citizen — we’re the only one,’ he stated.
Elsewhere in Matias Romero, Oaxaca State, Mexico, migrants taking part in the caravan marched to protest against Donald Trump on Tuesday. Trump appeared to be talking about the caravan in his speech on Thursday when he mentioned the rape of women who make the journey to the U.S.
A woman changes her baby’s diaper while others look on at the Ferrocarrilero VÌctor F. Morales Sports Center in MatÌas Romero, Oaxaca, Mexico, while a pregnant migrant looks on. Trump complained Thursday about such women: ‘If you have a baby on our land, congratulations that baby is a United States citizen — we’re the only one’
Marvin Geovanni Alvarez, 39, of El Salvador, and others relax in a field in MatÌas Romero, Oaxaca, Mexico. Alverez was targeted by MS-13 gangsters that Trump said Thursday were thugs, killers and murders, after returning to El Salvador, stabbed three times – once in the head – and warned he would be murdered if he didn’t join up
The United States’ immigration laws are ‘insanity,’ he said during the riff on his desired border wall, and they need to be changed.
‘We’re gonna have our wall. We’re going to get it very strongly. The military’s going to be building some of it,’ he added.
Trump said the major drawback of illegal immigration is that American authorities have ‘no idea who they are what they do’ when they come over the border.
‘We don’t know if they’re murders, if they’re killers, if they’re MS-13,’ he said, referring to a pervasive illegal immigrant gang.
Because of MS-13, Trump said America’s towns are ‘being taken over by thugs’ who ‘cut people up’ with knives because a bullet is ‘too quick’ for their victims.
The gang members ‘infect pain’ on innocent children, he said, and then their ‘parents never seem them again.’
‘And this is the kind of stuff and crap that we’re allowing in our country,’ Trump stated. ‘We can’t do it. We cant do it anymore.’