Critics immediately panned President Donald Trump’s prime-time speech pushing for a U.S.-Mexico border wall for its numerous lies and misrepresentations, even on the president’s favorite network.
Fox News anchor Shepard Smith challenged many of Trump’s claims by using the government’s own numbers.
After Trump said that “innocent people” are being “horribly victimized” by immigrants who commit crimes, Smith quickly added perspective.
“The government’s statistics show that there is less violent crime by the undocumented immigrant population than by the general population,” he said.
Trump also argued for his wall by saying that immigrants carry illegal drugs across the border, but Smith pointed out that a wall wouldn’t make much difference there.
“Government statistics show much of the heroin actually comes not over the unguarded border but through ports of call,” he said.
Smith continued:
“He talks about undocumented crossings over the past months. In fact, the number of undocumented crossings over the southern border has been steadily down over the last 10 years and the government reports that there is more outward traffic than inward traffic.”
Smith also pushed back on Trump’s claims that Mexico will pay for the wall via a revised trade deal.
Watch his full segment and a discussion with Chris Wallace in the clip below.
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