Once again, hundreds of Bernie Sanders supporters have elevated a vile lie to the top of the Kos rec list. In this case a diarist calls Hillary Clinton a monster in a profanity laced tirade for defending an Obama administration policy designed to protect children from human traffickers. The attack is not new, it was first made by Martin O’Malley in May of last year. Here is a link to FactCheck.org's response.
Hillary notes that under U.S. and international law unaccompanied children are to be returned to their parent or guardian when they can be found. She explicitly makes a distinction between economic migrants and refugees who would face danger in their home country. When asked if she would deport endangered children her response is clear and direct, “No, of course not"
She also told Ramos that the Obama administration made a “good suggestion” to airlift certain at-risk Central American children to the U.S. A day earlier, on July 24, 2014, the New York Times reported that the administration was considering creating a refugee program for children from Honduras. Clinton spoke about doing the same for children from El Salvador and Guatemala as well.
Ramos, July 25, 2014: I think no government should be in the business of deporting endangered children.
Clinton: No, of course not. That’s why we need a process to determine who falls into that category, and then I do think the Obama administration has made a good suggestion. We’ve done this in Vietnam. We’ve done this in Haiti. We should be setting up a system in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, to screen kids. And in fact John McCain –
Ramos: Over there?
Clinton: Over there. Before they get in the hands of coyotes or get on ‘The Beast’ or they’re raped or terrible things happen to them.
That’s exactly what the Obama administration did in November, as we recently wrote about.
So Clinton is supporting a program to protect endangered children by offering refugee status without the dangerous journey across Mexico, and seeking to deter parents who would expose their children to those terrible risks only to gain them an economic advantage. Monster.
As the diarist notes, Bernie embraced this attack in the last debate, so I suppose it is unfair to blame the diary on Bernie Bros run amok as the last shameful outrage diary was. I’ll just call it an artful smear.