Cross posted to the MRC's NewsBusters blog
On Monday's Deadline: White House, MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace allowed her guests to call President Donald Trump a "monster," compare ICE activity to Japanese internment, and wrongly claim that schools are gassed and churches raided.
Wallace began the segment by claiming that there has been a "dehumanization" of illegal aliens by MAGA Republicans, and played a clip of former Barack Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau from her podcast spinning that Democrats would poll better on immigration issues if different questions were asked.
She then picked up and pushed the same narrative that Democrats have more popular views on immigration:
... the other part of it is I think you would see that Democrats are on the right side of all the immigration questions actually before the country. And Democrats have been in a defensive crouch around questions around the border and whether people here illegally receive federal benefits -- they don't -- but on this question of disappearing people, the Democrats are on the right side of history.
Speaking to MSNBC contributor Claire McCaskill, Wallace posed:
People being disappeared without receiving due process by men -- and I've seen very few women in masks -- has about a five percent approval -- actually about a 10 percent approval rating. I mean, that is an issue where Democrats could speak about immigration and stand with the vast majority of Americans.
McCaskill suggested that supporters of mass deportation are racists and then started making incorrect claims that immigration agents have been raiding schools, churches and hospitals:
We all have frankly stood in abject horror watching the twisting of the New Testament around some of Trump's policies. I don't know if you could twist it so far that you're, you know, using chemicals on grade schools and raiding churches and raiding hospitals and catching people when they come to court to do what they're supposed to do to stay in this country legally.
After MsCaskill talked up the possibility that Christians and other religious groups might start opposing mass deportation, Wallace followed up:
We've also got the people who think they care about law and order -- the people getting rounded up in court are the law and order asylum seekers and immigrants -- I mean, they are the people who have such reverence for power and laws and our order that they have gone to court. And that is where they've been rounded up and disappeared from.
It was not mentioned that many people arrested at courthouses have been criminals and that even many asylum seekers broke the law by entering the country illegally.
The segment's other guest, Mini Timmaraju complained about illegal aliens being called "illegal," invoked the internment of Japanese Americans, and called President Donald Trump a "monster" as she responded:
... it's so important that you were talking about dehumanization, and I just have to take a step back and say it has happened in our country before -- actually many times -- more recently, you know, comes to mind what happened to Japanese Americans in World War II. So we have a history actually of demonizing immigrants. Sometimes even Democrats do it, right?
We're casual about it when you say "illegal" versus "undocumented," you know, and then we have folks say, "Don't police folks -- that's a turnoff." But, actually, words mean something, and we casually allow for demonization of communities. Over long periods of time, people -- innocent people get caught in the net, and it allows for, frankly, this monster in the White House to go after our communities.
Transcript follows:
MSNBC's Deadline: White House
November 3, 2025
4:46 p.m. Eastern
NICOLLE WALLACE: I want to ask you to pick up on the immigration political piece which obviously we focus a lot on the human toll and all of the dehumanization that happened in our politics ahead of Donald Trump's rally featuring people waving around their "mass deportation now" signs. When I sat at this set together watching it, I, the first time I saw it I was shocked, but even as someone covering it, it became the thing that you saw at the Republican convention over those four nights. Here's what Jon Favreau said in the same interview about dehumanization and this word that I invented for purposes of conversation -- re-humanization.
JON FAVREAU, FROM THE BEST PEOPLE: Re-humanization is actually a -- that needs to be a goal of ours now because we are -- we are dealing with an authoritarian threat where they are trying to dehumanize people. But there's a difference between people saying, "I support tighter border security, more asylum restrictions, no public benefits at all for non-citizens" -- like I'm not surprised is that those things are popular. Those things are not, "Do you support federal agents -- masked federal agents in the street shooting pepper balls at priests, breaking people's ribs, and disappearing people."
And I get that there's not a lot of research about those polling questions because it hasn't happened in the country before, so like we're sort of -- we're operating as if like it's normal times, and it's not. And do you think that, like, if the polling and the strategy started reflecting what's actually happening, I think you would see that more people would be appalled by this if you ask them.
WALLACE: I mean, the other part of it is I think you would see that Democrats are on the right side of all the immigration questions actually before the country. And Democrats have been in a defensive crouch around questions around the border and whether people here illegally receive federal benefits -- they don't -- but on this question of disappearing people, the Democrats are on the right side of history. People being disappeared without receiving due process by men -- and I've seen very few women in masks -- has about a five percent approval -- actually about a 10 percent approval rating. I mean, that is an issue where Democrats could speak about immigration and stand with the vast majority of Americans.
CLAIRE McCASKILL, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: And I think you're going -- I think you'll see that in the presidential campaign that is going to happen in the next several years. I do think there is a small sliver of the country that thinks it's a great idea to get anybody out of this country that doesn't look like them, and those people think Donald Trump is just the best thing that's ever happened.
(... McCaskill theorizes that conservative Christians might become more sympathetic to immigrants. ...)
We all have frankly stood in abject horror watching the twisting of the New Testament around some of Trump's policies. I don't know if you could twist it so far that you're, you know, using chemicals on grade schools and raiding churches and raiding hospitals and catching people when they come to court to do what they're supposed to do to stay in this country legally. I don't think that the evangelical community should stand for that, and I think the faith community over the next couple of years -- you see the Pope doing it, but you need to see a lot more than the Pope.
You need to see American bishops -- you need to see the leaders of all the major denominations -- you need to see the Jewish and the Muslim communities. They all need to come together and say, "You know what? This is not what -- how we treat our fellow man. This is not what we do. And I think it could be powerful if somebody uses it the right way. I think it could be a very powerful pushback on what is a very shameful episode in our country.
WALLACE: We've also got the people who think they care about law and order -- the people getting rounded up in court are the law and order asylum seekers and immigrants -- I mean, they are the people who have such reverence for power and laws and our order that they have gone to court. And that is where they've been rounded up and disappeared from.
MINI TIMMARAJU, REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM FOR ALL: But this is -- it's so important that you were talking about dehumanization, and I just have to take a step back and say it has happened in our country before -- actually many times -- more recently, you know, comes to mind what happened to Japanese Americans in World War II. So we have a history actually of demonizing immigrants. Sometimes even Democrats do it, right? We're casual about it when you say "illegal" versus "undocumented," you know, and then we have folks say, "Don't police folks -- that's a turnoff." But, actually, words mean something, and we casually allow for demonization of communities. Over long periods of time, people -- innocent people get caught in the net, and it allows for, frankly, this monster in the White House to go after our communities.
(...)
