Trump’s ex-campaign manager refused to apologize for dismissing the seriousness of removal of girl from her mother

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Donald Trump’s former presidential campaign manager has refused to apologize for appearing to dismiss the significance of the removal of a 10-year-old Mexican girl with Down’s syndrome from her mother.

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Amid controversy over the Trump administration’s policy of separating migrant families at the southern border, Corey Lewandowski appeared on Fox News on Tuesday night. In response to a panelist who mentioned the separation of the girl with Down’s syndrome, he responded: “Womp womp.”

The man who led Trump’s election campaign until he was fired in June 2016 appeared to be downplaying the seriousness of the story.

On Wednesday, in the face of outrage on social media and morning TV news shows, Lewandowski appeared on Fox News again. He was asked if he wanted to apologize.

“An apology?” he said. “I owe an apology to the children whose parents are putting them in a position that is forcing them to be separated.”

Lewandowski, who was credited during the campaign with creating a policy of “letting Trump be Trump”, has remained close to the president and was echoing his response to the controversy. The president continued on Wednesday to falsely insist that existing law and obstruction by Democrats are to blame for the family separations.

There is no law, brought in by either party, that mandates separations. Under a “zero tolerance” immigration policy announced in April, the Trump administration is choosing to jail all adult undocumented migrants. As children cannot be held in adult facilities, families are broken up.

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed that it separated a child with Down’s syndrome from her mother earlier this month.

The agency said in a statement this was not a result of the “zero tolerance” policy but because the mother was being held as a witness in a “smuggling incident”.

According to CBP, the mother was traveling with her five children, three of whom were US citizens, in a car driven by another US citizen, when the group was stopped. The agency said the three children with citizenship were released to an aunt.

“The mother was not prosecuted, but is instead being held as a material witness to support the prosecution of the smuggler,” the statement said. This, it said, “precipitated the separation of the two other children, both Mexican citizens”.