MSNBC’s Morning Joe proved once again that when it comes to violent crime, especially involving illegal immigrants, their instinct is to deflect, downplay, or dismiss. On Thursday, the panel spent over seven minutes hand-waving away mounting evidence against an alleged MS-13 gangster, more concerned with spinning the narrative than acknowledging the brutal realities tied to the Biden administration’s reckless open-border policies. Rather than confront the serious implications of letting dangerous individuals slip through the cracks, the hosts fell back on tired talking points and partisan gaslighting, showing just how out of touch the liberal media remains on law and order.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski and panelists John Heilemann and Pablo Torre spent a significant portion of the segment trying to dismiss the 13-page dossier that the Trump administration released detailing the evidence against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an alleged MS-13 gang member deported to El Salvador. It also included rulings from immigration judges determining Abrego Garcia was a known member of the El Salvadoran prison gang. In 2022, he was detained by the Tennessee Highway Patrol on suspicion of human trafficking but was released by the FBI, which was operating under the Biden Administration at the time.
Brzezinski downplayed concerns about the alleged MS-13 gang ties of Abrego Garcia, focusing instead on what he was wearing—like a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie—while brushing off law enforcement claims that these items symbolized gang affiliation. She emphasized that Garcia had “no criminal history” at the time of his arrest and highlighted that although the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) connected him to a 2019 murder investigation, he was never charged. In other words, Brzezinski seemed more concerned with optics than the red flags raised by law enforcement.
In response, Torre accused "Trump TV" of manipulating the situation by presenting selective details and trying to steer the audience toward a particular narrative. He argued that while Garcia may have personal issues and was found in a parking lot with items linked to the dangerous MS-13 gang, he was never charged with a crime.
“Here’s a man never charged with a crime, but he’s had problems in his marriage. But he was found in this parking lot with alleged gang-affiliated caps, hoodies, that stuff,” Torre said. “And what I want to make clear is that you actually don’t need to respect Kilmar Abrego Garcia as a man in order to come to a clear conclusion on this matter. It’s whether you respect the law, right?”
Abrego Garcia illegally came into the U.S. in 2011 and was adjudicated to be a member of MS-13 by immigration courts in 2019. President Donald Trump designated MS-13 as a foreign terrorist organization directly after taking office.