NBC White House correspondent Kelly O’Donnell on Monday questioned MSNBC anchor Ayman Mohyeldin for suggesting that President Trump prefers immigrants who come to the United States to be from “Nordic countries.”
The anchor began the segment by addressing the Trump administration’s new policy change that could prevent immigrants from entry or be denied visa renewals if they rely on U.S. government benefits.
“We know President Trump proposed this update last year, according to our own reporting,” Mohyeldin said to O’Donnell. “According to the former Homeland Security secretary, it’s designed to promote immigrant self-sufficiency to ensure that they are not likely to become burdens on American taxpayers.”
“We know the president has always had a preference for immigrants from Nordic countries,” he continued. “He’s made that very clear as opposed to some of the other disadvantaged countries. Walk us through the impact on these immigrants. Why now?”
O’Donnell countered, “Well, I don’t know that the president has expressed a preference for Nordic countries. That is something where I’m not sure where you’re getting that from. But, he certainly said he has an emphasis on merit-based immigration. And he has talked about that extensively. So that matches up to his rhetoric.”
They both then took to Twitter to continue the confrontation.
Thanks @tomcolicchio. There have been so many disparaging comments made about immigrants by this President, it’s understandable why this would have been forgotten. https://t.co/RUDQAxADS4
— Ayman Mohyeldin (@AymanM) August 12, 2019
Mohyeldin tweeted in part, “There have been so many disparaging comments made about immigrants by this President, it’s understandable why this would have been forgotten,” to which O’Donnell responded that there’s a “difference between something said in a private meeting and today’s actual public policy proposal.”
Of course I know the reference but there is a difference between something said in private meeting and today’s actual public policy proposal I try to stick to what we can report and not a flip comment.
— Kelly O’Donnell (@KellyO) August 12, 2019
“I try to stick to what we can report and not a flip comment,” she added.
