MSNBC‘s Rachel Maddow broke down while delivering the news about the separation of children from their families at the nation’s border. The story, from The Associated Press, reads, “Trump administration officials have been sending babies and other young children forcibly separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border to at least three ‘tender age’ shelters in South Texas, The Associated Press has learned.”
Rachel Maddow chokes up and cries on air as she struggles to deliver news that migrant babies and toddlers have been sent to “tender age” shelters pic.twitter.com/O6crm8cvyR
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) June 20, 2018
It goes on to say that since the White House announced its zero tolerance policy in early May, more than 2,300 children have been taken from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. Lawyers and medical providers who visited the Rio Grande shelters have described play rooms of crying pre-school children “in crisis.” The government plans to open a fourth shelter in Houston.
Maddow could not keep it together and eventually asked for a graphic so that it could be shown to the viewers so they could read it themselves. But since there was not one available, she tried to continue on, with tears in her eyes and a waver in her voice. She took to Twitter to apologize after the show.
Ugh, I’m sorry.
If nothing else, it is my job to actually be able to speak while I’m on TV.
What I was trying to do — when I suddenly couldn’t say/do anything — was read this lede:
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— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018
“Trump administration officials have been sending babies and other young children forcibly separated from their parents to at least three “tender age” shelters in South Texas…
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— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018
“Lawyers and medical providers who have visited the “tender age” shelters described play rooms of crying preschool-age children in crisis…
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— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018
“Decades after the nation’s child welfare system ended the use of orphanages over concerns about the lasting trauma to children, the administration is standing up new institutions to hold Central American toddlers that the government separated from their parents…
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— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018
“The thought that they are going to be putting such little kids in an institutional setting? I mean it is hard for me to even wrap my mind around it,” said Kay Bellor, vice president for programs at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, “Toddlers are being detained.”
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— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018
All from this Associated Press story that broke while I was on the air tonight, but which I was unable to read on the air:https://t.co/2VBLTVxvQq
Again, I apologize for losing it there for a moment. Not the way I intended that to go, not by a mile.
— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018
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