Reporters and news anchors have chided President Donald Trump this past month for both talking and not talking about the migrant caravan from Central America.
Before the midterm elections, Trump often brought up the caravan at his campaign rallies and told voters to vote Republican so Congress could pass stricter immigration laws and prevent the caravan from entering the United States. News outlets from Vox to mainstream outlets like CNN condemned Trump's "fearmongering" message about the caravan.
Media reporters like CNN's Brian Stelter questioned whether the media "fell" into Trump's narrative about the caravan before the election. Stelter then credited former President Barack Obama for predicting Trump wouldn't mention the caravan as frequently after the election.
And yet Trump has only used the word "caravan" once since election day, and it was almost in passing, at a news conference the next day. The migrants are still heading north, but you'd barely know it from Trump's behavior.
So here's the thing: Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, predicted this would happen.
"Right before the election, they try to scare the heck out of you," Obama said in a blunt critique of the GOP on October 26. "And then the election comes, and suddenly the problem is magically gone. Everything's great. 'I'm sorry, what did we say?'"
In CNN's coverage, hour after hour, they noted how Trump didn't tweet about the caravan in the days after the election.
The president was criticized for talking about the caravan too much before the election and then was criticized for not talking about it enough after the election. That was until the caravan reached the U.S. border with Mexico. Despite the midterms being behind him, Trump has tweeted and talked about the migrants in recent days.
In response, the media narrative has changed from Trump being a fearmonger to his administration using tear gas on children. While the mainstream media expresses outrage at Trump's actions, it curiously failed to show any concern over his predecessor's administration taking the same action.