DHS spokeswoman pushed NBC News to retract accurate story about terrorists at the border

[Suburban Warrior]

Source: NBC News

WASHINGTON — A new whistleblower complaint alleges that in late 2018 and early 2019 former senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security sought to inflate the publicly reported number of known or suspected terrorists crossing the border, in a move to increase support for a border wall.

In early 2019, a DHS spokeswoman pushed NBC News to retract an article based on accurate figures the agency had disclosed in a document to Congress in the months prior that were far lower than the nearly 4,000 in a year the administration had been citing publicly.

The January 2019 NBC News article reported that, contrary to those public statements by Trump administration officials, only six immigrants who were known or suspected terrorists had been encountered at the southern border in the first half of fiscal year 2018.

At the time, administration officials were repeating the 4,000 figure in an effort to justify the government shutdown over Trump's border wall, and the lower, more accurate figure undercut their argument.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/dhs-spokeswoman-pushed-nbc-news-retract-accurate-story-about-terrorists-n1239702

[grumpyduck]

1. Better late than never, I guess.

Keep exposing those fucking assholes who want to muzzle the press.

Shout it far and wide!

[chowder66]

2. The DHS spokeswoman was none other than Katie Waldman, Stephen Miller's wife.

snip

Before publication, then-DHS spokeswoman Katie Waldman told NBC News that publishing the figures would put border agents in harm's way. At the time, NBC News consulted former DHS officials who were adamant this was not the case.


Waldman, now Miller, declined to provide an on-the-record comment to NBC News for this article about her handling of the 2019 NBC News report. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

[2naSalit]

3. Small world in rumpville. ...nt

[ck4829]

8. Interesting...

[SunSeeker]

4. And yet Trump claims he lied about Covid-19 because he didn't want to panic people.

Seems like panic, at least about black and brown people, is his chief objective.

[crickets]

6. Indeed. There's a huge difference between 6 and 4000. nt

[NoRoadUntravelled]

5. Which government agencies are considered to be worthy of the trust of America's citizens these days?

Are there any or have they all been sullied by swamp water? I'm not referring to the dedicated employees who are working under stressful conditions due to this administration's inept and often cruel decisions. But, since most government agencies are now under the management of Trump appointees, it seems they've been tainted at best and unrecognizably scarred at worst.

[ck4829]

7. K&R