A guest of Stephanie Ruhle had to correct the MSNBC host on Thursday for a misleading framing of remarks made about MS-13 by President Donald Trump.
Numerous media outlets reported Trump referred to illegal immigrants in general Wednesday as "animals," but he was responding to a statement made by a sheriff about the problems posed by MS-13, the violent, transnational gang.
Ruhle introduced the clip to guest Pete Wehner by saying Trump "was talking about sanctuary cities in California."
"We have people coming into the country, or trying to come in. We're stopping a lot of them, but we're taking people out of the country," Trump said. "You wouldn't believe how bad these people are. These aren't people. These are animals."
"These are animals," Ruhle solemnly repeated after the clip finished.
"Yeah, look I do want to say to be fair to Trump, he was referring to the gang members in [MS-13,] not just people who are undocumented immigrants, and that's an important distinction," Wehner said.
Wehner, who worked in the George W. Bush White House as a speechwriter, added he wouldn't use Trump's rhetoric regardless.