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WASHINGTON โ President Donald Trump sought Friday to bolster his case for border-wall funding by pointing to a migrant caravan heading toward the United States and citing a news story that quoted an anonymous New Mexico rancher saying she has found Muslim prayer rugs on her property.
The presidentโs arguments, in morning tweets, represented his latest attempt to portray a security crisis at the border using what Democrats have derided as scare tactics.
The tweets come as Trump and congressional Democrats remain at an impasse over his demand for $5.7 billion in border-wall funding that has led to a partial government shutdown now in its 28th day.
Border rancher: โWeโve found prayer rugs out here. Itโs unreal.โ Washington Examiner People coming across the Southern Border from many countries, some of which would be a big surprise.
โ Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2019
In one tweet, Trump referenced a Washington Examiner story that prominently quoted an unnamed rancher from a remote, southwestern part of New Mexico who said that her discovery of prayer rugs suggested โterrorist threatsโ unappreciated by the general public.
Rancher Admits Sheโs โNever Seen any Middle Easternersโ
In a video that accompanied the story, the rancher acknowledged that she โnever seen any Middle Easternersโ herself. She did not explain how she knows the blankets she says she has discovered are prayer rugs nor did the video show any such rugs.
โPeople coming across the Southern Border from many countries, some of which would be a big surprise,โ Trump said in his tweet that referenced the Examiner story.
In advance of last yearโs midterm elections, Trump also sought to highlight what he said was a threat from โall sorts of peopleโ of Middle Eastern descent joining a caravan making its way through Central America toward the U.S. border.
He at one point acknowledged โthereโs no proof of anythingโ before adding โbut there very well could beโa large number of Middle Easterners in the caravan.
In his tweets Friday, Trump pointed to a new caravan of Central American migrants crossing into Mexico from Guatemala that had been the subjects of segments earlier on Fox Newsโ โFox & Friends,โ a show the president regularly watches.
โAnother big Caravan heading our way. Very hard to stop without a Wall!โ Trump tweeted.
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