President Donald Trump and Sean Hannity jokingly accused Democrats and the media of collusion on Thursday night because both have regularly referred to the situation at the border as a “manufactured crisis.”
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“I have tapes of maybe 20 Democrats, they all use the same phrase ‘manufactured crisis.’ Interestingly, their best friends in the media are all using the same word ‘manufactured crisis,’ Hannity began. “We have drug cartels, we have gangs we are dealing with. 90% of America’s heroin crossing our southern border and then, of course, we have had homicides and we have had sexual assaults. 100,000 violent assaults. What do you say to that talking point the media and the Democrats are using this is manufactured?”
“Well, you know, I watched last night. I saw on your show last night, actually, where you had anchor after anchor using the exact same word. It’s manufactured. Manufactured,” Trump responded. (RELATED: Elected Republicans Roast Jim Acosta For Inadvertently Providing Walls Work)
Hannity added, “Sounds like they were in collusion.”
US President Donald Trump speaks during his visit to US Border Patrol McAllen Station in McAllen, Texas, on January 10, 2019. (JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)
“A little collusion. That’s the real collusion, okay? That’s the real collusion, you take a look. Because they all use the exact same term. I mean literally the exact same two words but they had manufactured. I said where do they come up with that? That’s a manufactured crisis. No, it’s a manufactured sound bite because it was just a sound bite. But every — virtually every, you know, I call it the fake news,” the president continued.
The president’s visit to the border comes during a partial government shutdown over funding for border security. Trump explained earlier in the day Thursday that he “almost definitely” will resort to declaring a national emergency to get the funding.