CNN host Dana Bash challenged Bernie Sanders Sunday regarding his claim that the border crisis is "fake."
"Border facilities are dangerously overcrowded," Bash said. "Migrants are actually standing on toilets to get space to breathe. How is that not a crisis?"
Sanders responded by attacking President Donald Trump for his immigration policies and involvement in the birther movement, calling him "anti-Muslim."
Bash then asked Sanders yet again whether he believes there is a crisis at the southern border.
"It is a serious problem," Sanders answered. "But it is not the kind of crisis that requires demonization of desperate people who in some cases have walked a thousand miles with their children."
Sanders wrote in a tweet last week that "Trump's Mexico tariffs aren't about trade, it's about a fake border ‘crisis’ to scapegoat migrants."
Trump's Mexico tariffs aren't about trade, it's about a fake border "crisis" to scapegoat migrants. No wonder it's unpopular. We should be working to address migration’s root causes by ending our militarized drug war and race-to-the-bottom trade policies. https://t.co/sWDmNfrUza
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) June 5, 2019
Bash, who filled in for Jake Tapper on "State of the Union," noted that immigration officials arrested 144,000 migrants in May — the highest monthly total in 13 years. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents say many of these arrests are a result of migrants willingly surrendering to law enforcement to begin the asylum process.
Sanders claimed his tweet calling the border crisis "fake" was about how "Trump has been demonizing undocumented people in this country." The senator went on to say that he sees healthcare and climate change as "more serious crises."