LETTERS: Trump never said immigrants are animals, yet the lie lives on

To Ozaukee Press:

This opinion is in response to Orville Froh’s recent letter, “Trump is hurting America; he should resign or be impeached.”

He wrote, “Trump’s characterizing of Mexican migrants and immigrants as ‘animals’ is the same used by Hitler.” Let’s be clear: President Trump did not depict Mexican migrants or immigrants as animals. For the record, he did not call illegal aliens or undocumented workers animals either.

On May 16, President Trump was talking to the Fresno County sheriff in a meeting on immigration. She brought up the subject of the MS-13 gang. Our president then called MS-13 gang members (and only MS-13 members) “animals.”
For anyone in doubt, YouTube has videos.

Within seconds of President Trump uttering “animals,” tweets were flying and misleading, out-of-context droppings permeated social media.
Newspapers, cable commentators and politicians got in on the infamous “animal” chorus, which escalated into carelessly throwing out Hitler allegations. It is cheap and unmerited demagoguery to insinuate President Trump is Hitler and people who “think like him” are Nazi supporters.

Here we are, nearly two months down the road, and the lie that the president called all immigrants “animals” is still circulating. All the while, MS-13 members are living up to their motto of “kill, rape and control” in their horrific world of human trafficking, gang rapes and executions of fellow Americans. In my world, MS-13 members are an insult to animals and fall in the pure evil terrorist category.

There are plenty of Wisconsinites, myself included, who feel like they are trapped in a Groundhog Day movie scenario. We have seen it and lived it all before with Gov. Walker. The Act 10 protests, a partisan John Doe investigation, predawn raids, a colluding Government Accountability Board and the subsequent recall election were all a microcosm of today’s national scandal-ridden swamp scene. It appears history is repeating itself, and we all know how that turned out.

This is from a conservative #NeverTrumper who has hence learned to never say “never.”
Peggy Klug
Cedar Grove