Blasting the woke left’s attempts to discredit the great work Bukele has done in making El Salvador safer, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller harshly criticized a shelved “60 Minutes” segment on Venezuelan deportees held in El Salvador’s CECOT prison, calling it a “hatchet job” seeking sympathy for murderous Tren de Aragua gang members and demanding the involved producers be fired.
Supporting his assertions, referenced the murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray. The segment, featuring interviews claiming non-criminal deportees endured torture, was delayed by CBS Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss based on insufficient evidence. Responding, correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi accused Weiss of a political decision in an internal memo.
Speaking to “Jesse Watters Primetime” guest host Charlie Hurt, Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for Policy, declared, “Every one of those producers at ’60 Minutes’ engaged in this revolt, fire them. Clean house.”
Continuing his comments, he blasted these cowardly journalists, saying, “They’re trying to tell sob stories about Tren de Aragua gang members who drill holes in people’s hands, who rape and murder little girls. This is the gang that kidnapped, sexually assaulted and murdered Jocelyn Nungaray. Remember her? That precious 12-year-old girl from Texas who was taken from her mom and went through horrors none of us can even imagine. And you have these ’60 Minutes’ producers… trying to make us feel sympathetic for these monsters?” Miller declared.
Defending herself, Sharyn Alfonsi noted in a memo to colleagues, “Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.”
Continuing her biased remarks, the reporter claimed, “If the administration’s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a ‘kill switch’ for any reporting they find inconvenient.”
Watch Miller here:
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Bari Weiss, who recently accepted a leadership role at the network, stated, “I held a ’60 Minutes’ story because it was not ready. I look forward to airing this important piece when it’s ready.” Additionally, she added, “While the story presented powerful testimony of torture at CECOT, it did not advance the ball—the Times and other outlets have previously done similar work.”
Reacting to the story, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson declared, “60 Minutes should spend their time and energy amplifying the stories of Angel Parents, whose innocent American children have tragically been murdered by vicious illegal aliens that President Trump are [sic] removing from the country.”
During the offending segment, Luis Munoz Pinto, a deportee interviewed in a leaked segment, claimed, “Four guards grabbed me, and they beat me until I bled, to the point of agony. They knocked our faces against the wall, that was when they broke one of my teeth.”
Also included in the clip were remarks from Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, where she noted, “These are heinous monsters, rapists, murderers, kidnappers, sexual assaulters, predators, who have no right to be in this country and they must be held accountable.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video