VP Pantsonfire, does he ever take a moment to ask himself what t
he Christ he claims to follow would teach?
'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;'
David Gura
@davidgura
Asked by @costareports to provide evidence to back-up President Trump's dubious claim there are Middle Easterners in the migrant caravan, Vice President Mike Pence says this:
"It is inconvincible that there are not people of Middle Eastern descent in a crowd of more than 7,000 people advancing toward our border."
For those keeping score at home, the vice president's answer contains no evidence.
Vice President Pence continued, "In the last fiscal year, we apprehended more than 10 terrorists or suspected terrorists per day at our southern border."
In February, the vice president said this: "...we actually still apprehend 1,100 individuals a day, who are attempting to enter this country illegally, including seven individuals a day who are either known or suspected terrorists."
At the time, @PolitiFact fact-checked that smaller figure. Its conclusion? "Pants on Fire."
Vice President Pence says agents apprehend 7 terrorists or suspected terrorists along border every...
politifact.com
Let's continue to make our way through the vice president's answer. In this context, he defines "terrorists or suspected terrorists" as individuals "from countries that are referred to in the lexicon as 'Other than Mexico,'" which he defines as "from the Middle East region."
I assume "the lexicon" is how the U.S. Border Patrol categorizes apprehensions. There is nothing to indicate "Other than Mexico" doesn't mean, well, countries other than Mexico.
Here are those @CBP data, by fiscal year, BTW: (link: bit.ly/2wnPgow) bit.ly/2wnPgow.
The vice president then cites conversations he has had with Juan Orlando Hernández, the president of Honduras, and Jimmy Morales, the president of Guatemala, about the caravan.
He claims President Hernández (Honduras) told him the caravan was "organized by leftist gangs in Honduras," and it is "financed by Venezuela."
This represents a change in the administration's spin. In recent days, President Trump has said Democrats "wanted that caravan." One of his supporters in congress,
@RepMattGaetz, has claimed—without evidence—George Soros is funding it.
At this point in his four-minute answer, after saying the caravan is "being sent north to challenge our sovereignty and our border," Vice President Pence says that what this is really about—the caravan, the White House's position—is human trafficking.
"Nearly 40 percent of young girls that [sic] make their way into our country at the hands of human traffickers are sexually abused," he claims.
It is unclear where that figure comes from, if anywhere.