I really hate being the one doing these sorts of stories. It’s not as if I agree with the President all the time. Nor do I sit around all day thinking up things to attack him over. But the same clearly can’t be said for far too many establishment media figures.

Last night John provided a rundown of the President’s meeting with certain California law enforcement officials where they discussed a range of issues including illegal immigration, sanctuary city/state policies, deportation and more. But buried in the discussion was one answer given by the President which got much of the left-side media up in arms and by this morning it had turned into yet another “thing” to generate headlines and clicks. Trump was responding to a comment from one of the Sheriffs regarding cooperation with ICE and deportations when he referred to a particular subset of suspects as “animals.” Here’s how the New York Times chose to report it. (Emphasis added)

President Trump lashed out at undocumented immigrants during a White House meeting on Wednesday, warning in front of news cameras that dangerous people were clamoring to breach the country’s borders and branding such people “animals.”

Mr. Trump’s comments came during a round-table discussion with state and local leaders on California’s so-called sanctuary laws, which strictly limit communication between local law enforcement and federal immigration officers, and which the Trump administration is suing to invalidate. It was hardly the first time the president has spoken in racially fraught terms about immigrants, but it underscored his anger about unchecked immigration…

Huh. Calling all immigrants “animals” would certainly be a bad thing, eh? Coming from the NBC camp, Andrea Mitchell tweeted the same story.

A tough take down by the California governor after @realDonaldTrump calls people trying to get into the country "animals" not people. https://t.co/LPKiHPJaWZ

— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) May 16, 2018

It would take anyone interested in the actual facts of the story all of two minutes to go back and listen to the conversation. I’ll include the video for you here. The President was responding to comments from a Sheriff who was specifically referring to people she knew for a fact were members of the MS-13 gang but was unable to report to ICE because of sanctuary state restrictions. The relevant portion comes at the two-minute mark.

Sheriff Margaret Mims: There can be an MS-13 gang member I know about. If they don’t reach a certain threshold I cannot tell ICE about them.

President Trump: We have people coming into the country, or trying to come in — we’re stopping a lot of them. You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people, these are animals, and we’re taking them out of the country at a level and at a rate that’s never happened before.

The President was obviously responding to the Sheriff’s concerns about MS-13 members in her community. Pretending he was talking about everyone who shows up at the borders, including those legitimately seeking sanctuary, is simply dishonest. As I said, I really don’t enjoy being one of the people who need to point out this stupidity and media bias, but it never seems to end. Of course, now I’ll hear everyone who is on the Trump Derangement Syndrome bandwagon labeling me a “Trumpkin” or whatever the favored insult of the week is. So be it. When I disagree with the President on policy matters I point it out. But I don’t need to blatantly make up stories like this to do so.