President Donald Trump ripped the legacy media on Friday, saying that it has focused its coverage on a deported Salvadoran man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, while ignoring the grieving mother of Rachel Morin, a Maryland woman who was brutally murdered by an illegal immigrant in 2023.
For weeks, Democratic politicians and the legacy media have been zeroed in on the case of Abrego Garcia, who was deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration despite a 2019 court order prohibiting him from being sent back to the country. Trump addressed the deportation of Abrego Garcia while speaking to the media during the swearing-in ceremony for Dr. Mehmet Oz, the new administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“I’ve been hit pretty hard by fake shows, fake news, MSDNC in particular,” Trump said. “Where they talk about how evil I am that this man would be thrown out of our country, who is, according to certified statements that we got, a very violent person. And they want this man to be brought back into our country where he can be free.”
“Who they don’t talk about is that wonderful ‘Angel Mom,’ who lost her daughter,” Trump added, referring to Patty Morin, who was the White House’s special guest in the briefing room on Wednesday.
“She spoke unbelievably, I saw it, and the fake news didn’t pick it up,” Trump continued. “She spoke through tears. She’s devastated. She’s told me her life is like over.”
Morin called out reporters in the briefing room, urging them to “tell the truth” about the violent criminals that the Biden administration’s border policies allowed into the United States.
“It’s more than politics,” she said. “It’s about national security. It’s about protecting Americans. It’s about protecting our children.”
The Trump administration maintains that Abrego Garcia is a member of the violent MS-13 gang and poses a danger to the United States and its citizens. An immigration judge in 2019 ordered that the Salvadoran man living in Maryland be deported, citing his alleged ties to MS-13, but prohibited the federal government from sending him back to El Salvador, where Abrego Garcia feared persecution. Some confusion remains about the judge’s order, as some argue that it granted Abrego Garcia legal protections to remain in the United States despite having entered the country illegally.
Abrego Garcia’s case has gone to the courts, and U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis has given the Trump administration two weeks to prove that it has taken steps to return him to the United States. During a meeting in the Oval Office earlier this week, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said that it is “preposterous” to suggest that his government would send Abrego Garcia back to the United States.
During the press conference on Friday, Trump read from a restraining order that accused Abrego Garcia of being violent toward his wife, who is quoted in the order as saying she was afraid to be near him. Abrego Garcia’s wife, Sura, recently said the couple was “able to work through this situation privately as a family, including by going to counseling.” Sura is now advocating for Abrego Garcia’s return.
“This is the man that the Democrats are wanting us to fly back from El Salvador to be a happily ensconced member of the USA family,” Trump said. “Isn’t it a shame?”
