Rep. Veronica Escobar on Thursday accused President Trump of creating “an addiction to hate” over a joke he cracked about shooting undocumented migrants.
The Texas Democrat, who represents a U.S.-Mexico border district based in El Paso, pointed to Trump’s off-the-cuff remark at a Wednesday night rally in Panama City, Fla. Trump was responding to a member of the crowd who said migrant caravans headed toward the United States can be stopped from crossing the border illegally if you “shoot them.”
[Opinion: Trump actually laughed at rallygoer’s call for border agents to shoot illegal immigrants]
Trump said, “Only in the Panhandle you can get away with that statement.” Trump’s quip drew laughter and applause from the audience. Trump minutes earlier warned about the caravans “marching up” to the southern border, adding the U.S. “can’t let [Border Patrol] use weapons. Other countries do. We can’t. I would never do that.”
That drew condemnation Thursday morning from Escobar on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“When I saw [that clip] last night, it made me very, very sad,” Escobar told host Mika Brzezinski. “Very sad for our country, that we are at such a moral rock bottom and that we have a president who has created an addiction to hate, an addiction to bigotry and he uses every opportunity he can to feed and grow that addiction.”
“We are in so many crises,” the congresswoman said. “So we are juggling, as Americans, so many crises. This moral crisis is very painful to watch unfold.”
