Newsbusters:
Reporting on Border Patrol Agent Rogelio Martinez being killed in the line of duty over the weekend, on ABC’s Good Morning America on Monday, co-host George Stephanopoulos and correspondent Tom Llamas criticized President Trump for renewing his calls for a border wall in the wake of the death, dismissing it as “political theater.”
“We’re gonna move on now to an investigation underway in Texas after a border patrol agent killed on duty….President Trump weighed in overnight, repeating his call to build a border wall,”Stephanopoulos announced as he introduced the segment. The headline on screen blared: “Trump Reacts to Border Patrol Agent’s Killing; ‘We Will, And Must, Build a Wall.’”
After noting that “Texas leaders, including Governor Abbott and Senator Cruz, are describing this as an attack,” Llamas explained that the investigation was still ongoing: “U.S. Border Patrol and FBI are launching a full investigation for potential suspects….It’s still not clear what actually happened to the agents and there are reports that there were no shootings involved, but we’re still trying to figure out exactly what happened.”
Stephanopoulos wasted no time making the story about objections to Trump’s border wall: “Meantime, the President did tweet on this overnight, repeating his call for a border wall. Right now Congress shows no willingness to fund it right now, but they are building prototypes.” Llamas eagerly agreed: “No, no, definitely. That is exactly right….a lot of critics call this just political theater because so far they don’t have the funding for this massive project.”
Fellow co-host Robin Roberts chimed in, fretting over the cost of the wall: “And what’s the cost of these prototypes?” Llamas replied: “Well, $300,000 is the minimum. They’re between $300,000 to $500,000 each, so it’s a pretty penny.” Stephanopoulos added: “And the wall’s billions.”
Unlike ABC, the NBC and CBS morning shows on Monday refrained from attacking the President’s border security proposal while covering the death of Agent Martinez. On the Today show, co-host Savannah Guthrie informed viewers:
The FBI is investigating the death of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent in Texas. Officials say Agent Rogelio Martinez died on Sunday from injuries he suffered while patrolling the Big Bend area near the Mexican border. His partner was seriously injured.
A Border Patrol spokesman would not provide details about the incidents, however, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Senator Ted Cruz both referred to it was an attack and the President tweeted overnight, quote, “We will seek out and bring to justice those responsible. We will, and must, build the wall!”
On CBS This Morning, co-host Gayle King reported:
The Awful Broadcasting Company and George Stupidnopolous still has’nt taken the training wheels off his bike
Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House. If a wall isn’t built, it was just political theater.
But hey, they allowed money for prototypes.
Hammers, axes will help test Trump border wall prototypes
Don’t forget the aluminum ladder test. Nor the simple arithmetic involved with a 1,954-mile border. Stephanopoulos can do simple arithmetic. Though I suppose the cost might be reduced by using cheap undocumented foreign labor.
The left (and the media IS the left) wants open borders and a steady, heavy flow of illegal immigrants to dilute the population and tilt it towards the entitlement-dependent left. Border security and election security are two elements that get in the way of that.