A CNN guest began pounding the table as she passionately argued that “gang bangers” should be thrown out of the U.S. without due process.
NewsNight‘s token MAGA pundit Scott Jennings instigated the madness when he asked his fellow panelists whether they would seek the same rights for another group, were they to land on U.S. shores in an attempt “to invade.”
The ensuing back-and-forth ended with journalist Batya Ungar-Sargon slapping the studio table and voicing her desire to have all suspected MS-13 and Tren de Aragua members deported.
“They’re not citizens. We do not owe them the same thing. It has to mean something to be an American!” she raged.
Host Abby Phillip attempted to calm Ungar-Sargon and also had to remind her of the law more than once.
“You understand that that is not how the law works, that it is not true, that just because your citizen status, citizenship status, does not mean that you do not get the same rights to legal processes as everybody else in this country,” Phillip said at one point.
At the top of the segment, prior to Ungar-Sargon’s meltdown, former DNC spokesperson Xochitl Hinojosa said the immigrants who are being deported to El Salvador by Trump’s administration deserve to be shipped off if they are indeed “killing and raping women,” as the government claims.
She argued, however, that “there should be a process to deport them.”
Hinojosa accused Jennings of making it seem as if all undocumented immigrants are violent criminals. He disagreed, saying they’re not all violent—but claimed that all are criminals, mainly for coming to the U.S. illegally.
“Everybody, whether they are 2 years old or whether they are 90 years old, and have been in our country the entire time, deserve a process,” Hinojosa added.
“There are laws in order and their deportation proceedings to get these people out of our country. The 99-year-old who was here did not invade.”
Self-described “MAGA leftist” journalist Ungar-Sargon then set upon Hinojosa, claiming that she was supporting alleged gang members from groups like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua.
“To me, like the energy in defense of these gang bangers…” she began, before the former DNC spokesperson shot back.
“I’m not defending them. I just said they should leave!” she said as the panel went into full meltdown mode.
Amid the melee, Ungar-Sargon began reciting a bizarre version of Pastor Martin Niemöller’s 1946 poem “First They Came.”
The original poem is about complicity through inaction during the Nazi era.
“I feel that poem where it’s like, you know, first they came for the guy who beats his wife,” she said. “And I said nothing because I don’t beat my wife.
“And then they came for the guy who said, I love killing Jews. And I said nothing because I don’t love killing Jews. And now they came for the gang bangers and I said nothing.”
She grew more passionate as she went on, waving her arms and shouting. Toward the end of her recital, podcaster Van Lathan jumped in.
“Can I say something real quick? Do you know why that triggers me?” Lathan, who co-hosts The Ringer’s Higher Learning podcast, said.
“That triggers me because I come from a place where a whole bunch of people, they’re American citizens, but they are thrown away. They’re thrown away because they might have committed crimes, because they got in trouble when they were young.”
“You should be the angriest that they care about the gang members and not those people!” Ungar-Sargon shouted in response.
“What I care about is that there is a system of laws that is supposed to protect the due process of those people, and that has to matter more than what society thinks about whatever they have done,” Lathan continued.
“I am angry about that!” Ungar-Sargon squealed. “I am angry that there are Black people in prison who didn’t get due process!”
Host Abby Phillip tried to step in but Ungar-Sargon continued to shout: “I don’t know why the Democrats are not angry about that!”
“So why do you not want that for anybody else?” another person is heard saying.
She began banging the glass table, saying: “Because they’re not citizens. We do not owe them the same thing. It has to mean something to be an American!”
Phillip again tried to calm the author down, commending her passion in the process.
“Batya! Hold on a second. I mean, I get the passion, but I really think it’s important to really scrutinize what you just said,” Phillip said.
“The idea that people do not have the right to the processes of the law just because they are not citizens is your opinion. But that is not how the law works.”
Ungar-Sargon began to retort: “The president has the right to—”
But Phillip went on, unfazed, reminding the author that the U.S. Constitution protects everyone’s right to due process.
Ungar-Sargon said the country is split 50-50 on how much we “owe” people who “committed a felony as their first act on U.S. soil.”
Phillip stated that while her opinion is “fine and valid,” it is the law that ultimately matters.
“We do live in a nation of laws, and that has to mean something,” she added.
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