MSNBC AM JOY host Joy Reid claimed Saturday that the Trump administration treats migrants in the United States with “cruelty” to appease his base.

A partial transcript is as follows:

JOY REID: You know, the dehumanization of these folks, it did remind me, you know, Chris Hayes put up a post, it brings back sort of the memories of the way people treated others during the invasion of Iraq. The sense of, these aren’t even people. Or in our own past. The way that people were able to treat others, whether it’s from enslavement on. They’re just not people so we don’t have to think of them as human beings.

[…]

I think I quote you every week, Adam: the cruelty is the point. That’s why they’re doing it, right? His base wants to see this. And so he’s showing them that he can dehumanize them. Isn’t that message coming from the White House, that essentially you don’t have to treat these people like human beings. Who cares?

ADAM SERWER: I do think the message is coming from the White House that these people are not real human beings and you don’t have to treat them properly.