Lou Dobbs Plays Deceptively Edited Clip to Blame Protesters for ICE Guard Driving Into Them

Reed RichardsonAug 15th, 2019, 11:11 pm
 

Lou Dobbs played a deceptively edited video clip to blame anti-Trump immigration activists for assault after an incident where an ICE guard aggressively drove his truck into their peaceful protest, which was blocking the entrance to a Rhode Island ICE facility.

The unedited video of the altercation was originally posted by Never Again Action, a Jewish advocacy group that is protesting the Trump administration’s border detention camps and facilities. You can watch it in the Tweet below.

Dobbs used the same Never Again Action video — and credited the group — but he selectively cut out key context in his version by lopping off the first few seconds of it. When also stripped of its audio and replaced with Dobbs’ narration, the Fox Business video tells a distinctly different tale than what actually happened.

At the :36 second mark of the unedited NAN video, a dark Chevy pick-up turns off a main road at low speed to enter the Wyatt Detention Center parking lot while blowing hard on its horn, and its bumper comes within one or two feet of the sitting protestors’ heads before slowing to a stop, and then rolling forward again. Many of the frightened protestors scramble to avoid being run over and, at the :41 mark, some stand up and begin to put their hands on the front of the truck and banging on its hood to stop its progress. Other protestors then envelop the truck shouting “Shame! Shame!” At the :45 mark, the truck surges forward once more and several protestors start screaming as they’re driven backward by the momentum of the vehicle. When the truck stops again, two protestors approach the open driver’s-side window and accost the driver for his recklessness: “What the fuck are you doing?!”

Dobbs’ segment, on the other hand, began by airing the NAN video at its original :41 mark, conveniently omitting the truck’s dangerous approach and surge into the sitting protestors. As the truncated video silently rolled, Dobbs portrayed the protestors as the real aggressors.”ICE protestors harassing a federal detention worker last night,” he claimed. “These demonstrators blocking entrance to a facility holding illegal immigrants, when the driver tried to pull in to the parking lot, the protesters surrounding him, yelling, banging on the hood of the truck—blocking his entrance to the facility.”

Later in the segment, Dobbs replayed the NAN video, this time beginning at the corresponding :39 mark, showing the last seconds of the truck’s initial approach, but again leaving out evidence of both its speed just prior and the aggressive horn-blaring that suggested the truck might not stop as it barreled toward the protestors.

Meanwhile, Dobbs accused the protestors of being violent provocateurs. “In jurisdictions all around the country, by the way, what they committed was assault. Trying to stop and block a vehicle is considered assault. And some instances, banging on an occupied vehicle is considered assault. Which, obviously, demonstrators may have committed in Rhode Island last night.”

Then, Dobbs further defended the guard for driving into the protestors while teeing up an interview with guest Tom Homan, former acting ICE director for President Donald Trump. “I know it must gladden your heart to see a bunch of demonstrators,” he began sarcastically, “blocking the path of a guard then complaining about fact he sought to do what is within his rights, which is to precede to park his vehicle and do to work.”

This is not the first time Dobbs’ show has deployed an edited video to skew reality and impugn political opponents of the president. Back in May, he ignited outrage by airing a supercut of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaking that included a mocking replay of her stammering and mistakenly holding up the wrong number of fingers several times in a row.

Watch the video above, via the Fox Business Network.

Tags: