CNN host Wolf Blitzer was corrected by a guest Wednesday after he took comments former President Donald Trump made about illegal immigration out of context.
Trump called the alleged killer of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley an “animal” during a campaign appearance in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Tuesday. Blitzer, echoing a Biden campaign X post, claimed Trump referred to immigrants as “animals” during a segment of “CNN Newsroom with Wolf Blitzer,” before Republican strategist Scott Jennings corrected him on air.
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“I listened to the entire tape,” Jennings told Blitzer. “He was specifically talking about the person who murdered Laken Riley in Georgia, and to be honest with you, Wolf, if somebody murders another human being, I think they deserve to be called animals, and I don‘t think any American is really going to reject that kind of rhetoric.”
“That poor girl was murdered in cold blood,” Jennings added.
Riley’s alleged killer, Jose Antonio Ibarra, an immigrant from Venezuela who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, was arrested by University of Georgia police and charged with murdering the 22-year-old nursing student on Feb. 23.
“The 22-year-old nursing student in Georgia who was barbarously murdered by an illegal alien animal. The Democrats say ‘please don’t call them animals. They’re humans.’ I said no, they’re not humans. They’re animals,” Trump said during the Tuesday campaign appearance.
Trump and other Republicans have highlighted crimes committed by illegal immigrants since the murder of Riley, blaming President Joe Biden for reversing multiple Trump border policies during his first days in office.
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The Biden-Harris HQ account posted a clip of Trump talking during the Michigan event, but deleted key context to cut the video in a way that made it appear that Trump was talking about illegal immigrants generally.
“You think he was only referring to those murderers, not referring in general to illegal immigrants who are coming into the United States?” Blitzer asked.
“I listened to the tape,” Jennings responded. “That‘s exactly what he was talking about.”
First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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