Now that people in the news media are literally crying on TV, it’s time to watch public opinion once again drift into President Trump’s favor.

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow looked like she might throw up from overexertion Tuesday night as she tried to force out a tear while reading a report on illegal immigrants at the border separated from the children they brought along (sometimes they’re parents, sometimes they’re paid smugglers).



WATCH: MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow breaks down in tears while reading news of detention centers for babies pic.twitter.com/0xjMQotQzb — Mediaite (@Mediaite) June 20, 2018



Her daytime anchor colleague Stephanie Ruhle choked up earlier in the day talking on air about the same thing. So that there was no confusion about her compassion, she wore a subtle pin on her top that said “LOVE.”

The issue (tens of thousands of foreigners overwhelming the southern border) has never not been a “crisis,” and yet it wasn’t described by the media as such until Trump got in office and began enforcing laws against slipping into the country unnoticed and unvetted. (Their children cannot join them in jail, where everyone must go after being charged with a crime, but you rarely see that spelled out in news reports.)

And as with every other cultural issue of the last three years, reporters and liberal commentators have taken the losing route of throwing themselves all in on the wrong side.

It’s hysterical.

In a debate Tuesday on Fox News, former Hillary Clinton campaign aide Zac Petkanas attacked the illegal immigrant crack down by using an anecdote about a child with Down syndrome. Corey Lewandwoski, who headed the Trump campaign in its earlier days, dismissed the argument, so much as it was an “argument,” saying, “Womp, womp.”

The clip spread among reporters fuming that Lewandowski responded to the unverified story so heartlessly.

The New York Times even wrote a story about the exchange under the headline, “Corey Lewandowski Mocks Child With Down Syndrome Separated From Her Mother: ‘Womp Womp.’”

Only he didn’t mock the child with Down syndrome. He mocked Petkansas for using what was, at the time, a fully unsubstantiated claim as an attempt to win a policy argument.

Between overwrought shouts of “How absolutely dare you?” from Petakansas, Lewandowski said, “What I said is, you can pick anything you want to, but the bottom line is very clear: When you cross the border illegally you have given up the rights of that country.”

It wasn't even clear that the child exists. The story was initially traced back to one source: the Mexican government. You know, that pristine organization of the highest order, only known for its unblemished history of quality ethics. (Excuse me, what I meant to say was: corruption, bribery, and organized crime.)'

U.S. Customs and Border Protection released a statement Wednesday that said there was a child with Down syndrome separated from her mother but it had nothing to do with her being an illegal immigrant. It's because a U.S. citizen was being charged with attempting to smuggle the family across the border and the mother, who is not being prosecuted, needed to be held as a witness.

But so long as it’s now fine to win debates with anecdotes, Lewandowski should just say next time that he heard about a boy with cerebral palsy who was separated from his mother at the border and he’s having such a great time at the detention center that he began to weep when told he would soon have to leave.

Can’t verify it, but it does the trick!

CNN thought it had captured a rare and profound moment on film when Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday asked acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Thomas Homan if the separations caused by enforcing the existing law are “humane.”

“I think — I think it’s the law,” Homan replied.

Asked again specifically if it was “humane,” Homan said, “I think it’s the law and I’m a law enforcement officer and I follow the law.” He added that he thought it was “inhumane” instead when parents pay smugglers to illegally bring their kids, who are often abused along the way, to the U.S.

But because there was a gap in Homan’s speech that lasted less than three seconds, on a question he had already answered, CNN swore it had gold, tweeting out the clip and telling followers to “watch the head of ICE pause when asked by Wolf Blitzer if the policy of separating children from their parents is humane.”

Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order that’s intended to keep immigrant families apprehended at the border together, at least temporarily, given that the law says families with children cannot be be detained longer than 20 days.

But that means the problem is going to get worse, not better.

What do you think will happen under the administration once the families are released and the parents are caught later because they didn’t show up for their court date, as happens, by some estimates, in about 40 percent of immigration-related court orders?

What happens when detention facilities are stuffed beyond capacity because the families now can’t be split?

The “crisis” was never the illegal immigrant separations. It was the illegal immigrants.

The new executive order doesn’t solve it, and the public will quickly know.