Tuesday on CNN’s “The Lead,” host Jake Tapper said President Donald Trump’s tweet saying that Democrats wanted illegal immigrants “no matter how bad they may be” to come to the United States was part of his “embrace of the politics of fear and division.”

Democrats are the problem. They don’t care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country, like MS-13. They can’t win on their terrible policies, so they view them as potential voters! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2018

Discussing Senate Republicans addressing family separation with legislation, Tapper said, “That that would theoretically override the new Trump administration zero-tolerance policy that took effect in the spring prompting criminal prosecution of every single person apprehended at the border which has resulted in thousands of children being taken from their parents complete with heartbreaking images and haunting sounds of frightened, confused and screaming kids.”

He continued, “President Trump today, desperately trying to regain control of the story, tried to change the conversation to the larger topic of illegal immigration. Today President Trump using some of his darkest language yet, perhaps the harshest rhetoric he has used about this issue since the opening day of his campaign tweeting this morning, quote, ‘Democrats are the problem. They don’t care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our country, like MS-13. They can’t win on their terrible policy, so they view them as potential voters.’ You’ll notice the use of the dehumanizing word ‘infest’ there applied to undocumented immigrants. Part of the president’s embrace of the politics of fear and division. Talking about the, quote, ‘death and destruction’ that has been caused by people coming into this country and suggesting that those of us in the media covering the children impacted by his new policy are helping criminals.”

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