'So evil': Pro-Trump TV host calls immigrants 'satanic' and 'involved in human sacrifice'
A core campaign plank in former President Donald Trump's third bid for the White House is his promise to deport millions of immigrants. A far-right network host took that claim to new depths ahead of a Trump rally on Friday.
Prior to the rally in Aurora, Colorado, host Bobby McNeily of the Right Side Broadcasting Network — an openly pro-Trump outlet — prepped audiences by insisting that immigrants in Aurora were primarily affiliated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TDA), calling them "so evil."
He went on to baselessly conflate the gang members with other Aurora migrants, suggesting they were pedophiles and even that they were participants in occult practices.
"These people, they are are so evil. They are not your run of the mill criminal. They are people that are satanic. They are involved in human sacrifice," he said. "They are raping men, women, and children — especially underaged children."
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Trump has seized on a narrative that has spread among right-wing media outlets that TDA members had taken over the city of Aurora, and highlighted one incident of gang members running amok in a handful of apartment buildings.
Aurora police have identified 10 TDA members in the city, though law enforcement said the gang's activity is "isolated."
Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman — a Republican — has maintained that there is no migrant gang problem in his city and that Trump's claims are not accurate. He invited the former president to accompany him on a tour of Aurora as "an opportunity to show him and the nation that Aurora is a considerably safe city — not a city overrun by Venezuelan gangs."
"My public offer to show him our community and meet with our police chief for a briefing still stands," Coffman told the New York Times. He added that the narrative of migrant gangs taking over apartment buildings was overblown.
“The reality is that the concerns about Venezuelan gang activity have been grossly exaggerated,” Coffman said. “The incidents were limited to several apartment complexes in this city of more than 400,000 residents.”
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In the final weeks of the campaign, Trump is staying out of swing states and is holding rallies in blue states like California, Colorado, Illinois and New York.
This could be a strategy to assist swing district Republicans in liberal states in an effort to keep the lower chamber of Congress in Republican hands. However, one Republican strategist said the ex-president was making a mistake by choosing "optics and vibes" over trying to win over voters in the states most likely to decide the election.
Trump has zeroed in on the Haitian migrant communities in Springfield, Ohio and Charleroi, Pennsylvania as groups of immigrants he would deport shortly after taking office should he win the November election.