Fox News busts Sarah Sanders for lying about terrorists at the border

Sarah Sanders’ lie about the supposed number of “known or suspected terrorists” entering the country was too much for even Fox News to stomach.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Trump’s press secretary continued to defend his shutdown of the government over a useless multi-billion-dollar border wall.

Sanders claimed “roughly nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists come into our country illegally, and we know that our most vulnerable point of entry is at our southern border.”

But host Chris Wallace immediately called her on her lie. Wallace explained, “Do you know where those 4,000 people come or where they’re captured? Airports.”

He added, “The State Department says there hasn’t been any terrorists found coming across the southern border from Mexico.”

As Wallace stated, very few of the 4,000 people detained at airports, if any, are actually terrorists. Cato Institute’s Julian Sanchez noted many people are detained as a “suspected” terrorist just because they have the same name as someone on a government watch list.

Despite the real-time fact-check, Sanders continued to lie, saying that the borders are becoming “vulnerable” and that “we’re going to have an influx, not just of terrorists, but of human traffickers, drug inflow and people who are coming here to do American citizens harm.”

The Washington Post’s fact-checkers have repeatedly noted that the administration and their Republican allies in Congress have often used these fake numbers to bolster their argument for the wall. “These flawed statistics are at the heart of the government shutdown because Trump and his advisers keep citing them as they demand funding for a border wall.”

Fox News has been Trump’s propaganda partner and political ally for years, and regularly amplifies his lies and attacks.

But he and his administration are often so knee-deep in lies and deception that the occasional Fox host has to hit pause and at least question what Team Trump is pushing. This was one such instance.

Sanders lied about supposed terrorists crossing into America while trying to make excuses for pushing the needless wall. It was so much of a whopper that it couldn’t even get past Fox News.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.