A series of CNN chyrons this week scare-quoted President Donald Trump when he tweeted about and discussed the "caravan" of Central American migrants approaching the southern border, but it did not do so when interviewing the reporter who broke the story on Thursday.
The caravan, first reported on by BuzzFeed on March 30, attracted the president's attention after Fox News aired a report about it Sunday morning.
In an article headlined, "A Huge Caravan Of Central Americans Is Headed For The US, And No One In Mexico Dares To Stop Them," reporter Adolfo Flores described a group of more than 1,000 people, many from Honduras, on a march to the U.S. border.
"Organized by a group of volunteers called Pueblos Sin Fronteras, or People Without Borders, the caravan is intended to help migrants safely reach the United States, bypassing not only authorities who would seek to deport them, but gangs and cartels who are known to assault vulnerable migrants," Flores wrote.
After the Fox report on the caravan, Trump criticized "ridiculous" laws like "Catch & Release" and warned of "caravans" coming toward the border in a tweet.
Border Patrol Agents are not allowed to properly do their job at the Border because of ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws like Catch & Release. Getting more dangerous. 'Caravans" coming. Republicans must go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws NOW. NO MORE DACA DEAL!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 1, 2018
Over the past few days, he's tweeted about caravans several more times, taking credit at one point for Mexico intervening and halting the caravan in the southern state of Oaxaca.
Mexico has the absolute power not to let these large 'Caravans" of people enter their country. They must stop them at their Northern Border, which they can do because their border laws work, not allow them to pass through into our country, which has no effective border laws.....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2018
Honduras, Mexico and many other countries that the U.S. is very generous to, sends many of their people to our country through our WEAK IMMIGRATION POLICIES. Caravans are heading here. Must pass tough laws and build the WALL. Democrats allow open borders, drugs and crime!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 3, 2018
The big Caravan of People from Honduras, now coming across Mexico and heading to our 'Weak Laws" Border, had better be stopped before it gets there. Cash cow NAFTA is in play, as is foreign aid to Honduras and the countries that allow this to happen. Congress MUST ACT NOW!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 3, 2018
The Caravan is largely broken up thanks to the strong immigration laws of Mexico and their willingness to use them so as not to cause a giant scene at our Border. Because of the Trump Administrations actions, Border crossings are at a still UNACCEPTABLE 46 year low. Stop drugs!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 5, 2018
In a series of on-air reports on Monday and Tuesday, CNN's lower third chyrons featured Trump referring to "caravans," with the word in quotation marks.
It was unclear why the word, which BuzzFeed itself used repeatedly to accurately describe the large group of migrants, was placed in quotes when attributed to Trump.
At one point, CNN did quote Trump without scare-quoting the word "caravan."
On Thursday, however, while CNN interviewed Flores about the story, the chyron appeared without putting "caravan" in quotation marks.
