When Donald Trump first announced his campaign for president, he vowed to build a wall in an attempt to prevent illegal immigration from Mexico. After Trump signed an executive order to kick start the construction of the wall, the issue became a hot topic on cable news.
Trump's border wall
The idea of a wall on the Southern border has long been championed by Republicans, but it was never a central theme of a presidential campaign until Donald Trump got into the race.
During his campaign announcement, he referred to illegal immigrants from Mexico as "rapists" and "murderers," and has been branded as an enemy of the Hispanic community ever since. Despite this, Trump was able to increase his support with Hispanic voters when compared to recent Republican presidential candidates. On Wednesday morning, Trump signed an executive order to start the construction of the wall in question, and as seen during a January 25 panel segment on CNN, the issue is controversial.
Joining CNN hosts Kate Bolduan and John Berman was Ileana Garcia, the founder of "Latinas for Trump." Also joining the panel was Democratic Rep.
Joaquin Castro, who expressed concern and criticism for the building of the wall. In response, Garcia fired back, and didn't hold back her thoughts about immigration.
"I think that you guys are making too big a deal about who is going to pay for it," Garcia said, in relation to whether or not Mexico will fund the wall, before adding, "That's why he won!." "It's going to be happen whether you like it or not," Garcia said with anger. "You guys can sit here all day and discuss it, it's going to happen," she continued, before admitting that "it doesn't matter" who builds or pays for the wall, as long as it gets done.
CNN clash
When the CNN hosts continued to press her on Trump's promise to have Mexico cover the costs, Garcia repeatedly shouted, "What difference does it make?" At this point, Garcia went off the rails, claiming, "We were paying for sterilizations and abortions overseas, I didn’t know about that until recently." When the hosts attempted to bring the conversation back to the border wall, Garcia smirked and replied, "Ah, you don't want to talk about that!"
Moving forward
The clash between CNN and Donald Trump supporters is a theme that has only continued since Election Day, and doesn't look to be ending anytime soon.
On Tuesday night, Trump took to his own Twitter account to attack CNN for their alleged low ratings compared to Fox News during Inauguration Day. Despite this, Trump's claim has since been debunked as CNN and Fox News both brought in the same amount of viewers throughout the day.