Words have power, and Mika Brzezinski used hers this morning in a powerful attack on on Trump's family separation policy.
"The policy flies in the face of everything that America's based on, which we'll put aside for a second," she said.
"The president -- the president himself owns this policy. It's not a law. It's a policy put out by President Trump. You had the DHS secretary doing a press conference saying this policy will send a message, send a message to keep people from coming here. And then, you have Ivanka Trump tweeting, 'Thank you, President Trump, for revoking the policy.'
"But now you have thousands of children whose lives have been probably permanently marked by this. Think about. You have a child, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 16. Imagine your child being removed from you, from your life with that child for a week. How about a month? How about that child living in a facility for four months, being asked to clean toilets. Being told not the make a lot of noise. not to cry, because you won't be touched. How about having that child taken away from you and that child sitting there for days, weeks, and months, not knowing if and when he or she will ever see their family again.
"How about what that mother is going through? Physically, actually, sick. Not knowing if she'll ever hold her child again. Imagine that happening to you. Because that has happened to people coming to this country seeking asylum. That is happening right now. Hundreds of children may never see their families again. And that is this president's policy. This is owned by President Trump. Melania Trump went to the border and asked these empty questions about when and how these families will be put back together? Reunified. She said she wanted to know. she doesn't care, she's getting ready for Christmas at the White House.
"Ivanka Trump, thanking her father for revoking the policy while these children's lives hang in the balance? They still wait in the facilities to be reunified. Where are the questions? Where is the message to America that they -- we'll try to fix this? Nobody cares in this White House. they want to turn away from it and pretend it didn't happen.
"So we ask, where are they? And by the way, why can't we see them? Know how many there are? See their faces? When a child is missing, often you put the face on television. These children are missing. We don't know where they are, who they are, and how they'll be reunified with their families. They are missing. and by definition, ask any doctor, ask any child welfare specialist, ask any psychiatrist, ask yourself: is this abuse?
"This is abuse."
