A CNN panel on Friday expressed shock that President Donald Trump tried to strong arm the Department of Homeland Security into dropping off migrants in the cities of his political rivals.
Reacting to a Washington Post report that the Trump White House believed it could exact revenge on its foes by releasing undocumented immigrants into sanctuary cities, CNN's John Berman said he was stunned at how petty the Trump administration has become.
"The White House instinct on this was revenge," Berman said. "They were looking for revenge -- and revenge with human beings, undocumented immigrants."
Political analyst David Gregory slammed the White House for wanting to use refugees as political weapons against Trump's foes.
"The instinct wasn't to solve the problem, not to work with Congress, not to really educate the public about the depths of the problem and the challenges our agencies face on the border, but to engage in something so cynical, so impractical," he said. "[It] sounds very much like a Donald Trump idea."
Gregory also said that Trump's cynicism about using other human beings this way was "exploitative... of the people who are in a desperate situation," and he said he was relieved that officials at the Department of Homeland Security stopped the White House from making this plan a reality.
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