Politics
ABC News Under Fire Over Host’s Riot Comments: ‘People Having Fun Watching Cars Burn’
A reporter at Los Angeles’ ABC News affiliate is catching heat for his bizarre comments describing the violent anti-ICE riots boiling over in the city. While discussing video footage featuring rioters setting cars ablaze to protest against President Donald Trump’s deportation operation, the host described the situation to viewers as “just a bunch of people having fun watching cars burn.”
The reporter added, “It could turn very volatile if you move law enforcement in there and turn what is just a bunch of people having fun watching cars burn into a massive confrontation and altercation between officers and demonstrators.”
Unsurprisingly, the mainstream media took full advantage of the situation unfolding in L.A. to either show their support for illegal immigrants or to slam the Trump administration for doing its job and attempting to quell the uprising. Meanwhile, Gov. Gavin Newsom has continued to blame the president for “flaming the fires.”
The Los Angeles Times published a piece titled, “Feds vow to continue immigration enforcement ‘every day in L.A.’ Here are your rights.”
“Businesses should ensure that employees know their rights and that they should refrain from engaging with ICE officials, according to the National Employment Law Project,” the Times said in the article.
The New York Times also responded to the riots with a headline that read, “Trump Jumps at the Chance for a Confrontation in California Over Immigration.”
The report said, “The situation has all the elements that the president seeks: a showdown with a top political rival in a deep blue state over an issue core to his agenda.”
“In bypassing the authority of Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a Democrat, to call in the National Guard to quell protests in the Los Angeles area over his administration’s efforts to deport more migrants, Mr. Trump is now pushing the boundaries of presidential authority and stoking criticism that he is inflaming the situation for political gain,” the Times report added.
The Washington Post added its two cents to the mix, saying, “The easiest way to understand this is not that Los Angeles has suddenly turned into a metropolis riddled with criminal immigrants who are holding it hostage.”
“The easiest way to understand this is that the president and his administration have been looking to California as they have been looking to crush any center of power that he views as adversarial. … the administration by all appearances seeks to make an example of California and of any leaders who oppose its efforts.”
