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Thousands of migrants are waiting at the U.S.-Mexico border, preparing to cross into the United States as the COVID-era policy known as Title 42 expires Thursday night. The mayor of McAllen, Texas joins Elizabeth Vargas Reports.

Media Matters' Angelo Carusone discusses CNN's ill-fated town hall on Texas Public Radio. DAVID MARTIN DAVIES (HOST): Angelo, what do you think about CNN making the decision to do that town hall in that manner? ANGELO CARUSONE (GUEST): I mean, I think it's a huge mistake, obviously. My bigger concern to sort of tie into some of the feedback, especially around the audience engagement, is that I found worse was that -- We should keep in mind that these types of town halls were literally invented by Roger Ailes when he was Richard Nixon's media advisor. I mean, they were designed to be a manipulative tool, to essentially serve campaign purposes. So when CNN agreed not just to a town hall format but to a format in which they would have specifically ideologically-aligned audience members, that was a big concern. What's worse is that as a condition of Trump doing the event, they allowed the campaign to choose, to seat 15 people of their choosing within the audience. And that has an incredibly distorting effect because you're taking an already sympathetic audience or aligned audience, and then you put in functionally operatives into the audience that clap, that know when to clap or when to jeer or when to cheer or when to boo. What it does is it further adds to the manipulative effect. I think, to me, that's my biggest concern. Not just that they did it, how they did it, but some of the nuts and bolts of the actual production itself are really, really disturbing and insidious when you start to unpack it.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., calls out DHS Secretary Mayorkas and the Biden administration for 'lying about how the system works' as Title 42 is set to end. SANDRA SMITH, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: We're going to dip out here for just a moment, as that news conference continues at the White House. We will also expect to hear from Karine Jean-Pierre taking questions a moment from now as well. John, off the top saying, we're a nation of immigration, of immigrants and a nation of laws, telling and speaking directly to those migrants considering the journey, do not risk your life and life savings, only to be removed from the United States if you arrive here. He was pressed just a moment ago on that statement. Why are you just now sending that message? He also said, as we look at these live pictures, John: "I want to be very clear. Our borders are not open." JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Yes, he also said in response to Jacqui's question about this new parole system, when there's overcrowding, they just let people on the streets with no way to track them, she said, does this amount to an honor system? And he said no. And then he used the words, if they don't honor their commitment. So, yes, it is an honor system. Senator Lindsey Graham's been watching this with us. Your thoughts, sir? SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): I'm disgusted. This is a page out of Baghdad Bob. Remember the Iraq War, where Baghdad Bob was telling you Saddam is winning and an American soldier is walking behind him during the briefing? That was a joke. This is a joke. Title 8 deportation capability is a fraction of Title 42. He is lying about how the system works. Jacqui asked him a good question. How do you explain that, in 2020, we had 458,000 illegal crossings, in 2022, we had 2.4 million, in 2023, we're going to have more than that on his watch? Illegal immigration has increased five times. When Trump was president, the Congress never acted, but he was able to reduce illegal crossings to the lowest in 40 years. No one there asked him, how do you account for the difference between Trump and Biden? How did it go up five times? The policy choices you make, Mr. Secretary, have led to an invasion of this country. You're lying to the American people about how the system works. When you parole somebody, they never show up. They go to the country, somewhere in the country, never to be heard from again. We don't have the capability to follow all these people. And here's the test of this news conference. A week from today, based on what he said, will people turn around? Will one person coming to America after being informed of this news conference change their mind? Hell no. They're going to keep coming, because there's nothing he said is going to change the system. The people involved in illegal immigration know that what he says makes no sense. To the average American, this may sound good, but he is misrepresenting the solutions that are being offered. They won't work. We're on track to have more illegal crossings this year than last year. After Title 42 repeal, you're going to double daily the number of illegal immigration -- immigrants coming across this country. This is really a Baghdad Bob moment coming out of the Department of Homeland Security. I have never been more disappointed and disgusted than I am right now. I like this man, but what he's saying won't work. He's misleading the American people, and he should go. He should be fired. SMITH: He also said, Senator: "We prepared for this moment for two years." GRAHAM: Yes. SMITH: Noting the pictures on your screen, this is what their preparation for this moment looks like. He forecasts their plan will deliver results. One might ask why they waited to enforce the laws until Title 42 was lifted. That was obviously absolutely not necessary. But he's also blaming Congress. He's blaming Republicans. GRAHAM: Yes. SMITH: You have heard this White House over and over again not take any ownership of what you're seeing on your screen. He said that this is because of a broken, outdated system that is in place. Congress hasn't changed it, and Congress is not providing the resources they need to fix this problem at the border. What is your reaction to that, Senator? GRAHAM: I will gladly provide him more resources, only if you change policy. How was Trump able to reduce illegal crossings to the lowest level in 40 years without Congress acting? How is it that, since Trump left office, these new policy changes have been implemented by Biden? We have a five-time increase in illegal immigration. The policies of Trump worked. They were repealed by Biden. What you heard today was political B.S. They're not changing the policies in any way to deter anybody from coming. I promise you this. Nobody headed to America is going to turn around because of what Secretary Mayorkas said. Nobody is going to turn around, because they know what he said is all B.S. The traffickers, the cartels heard today business as usual. ROBERTS: Who's in charge of crossings across the Southern border? Is it the Department of Homeland Security, Senator, or is it the cartels in Mexico? GRAHAM: Well, the cartels run illegal immigration the Mexican side of the border. The American people pay for the last mile. So the illegal immigrant pays the cartel money to get to our border. Once you get to our border, you're processed and you're let loose in the country. You go somewhere and nobody ever sees you again. ROBERTS: But I guess my question really goes to the idea of, who's in control here? GRAHAM: Well, they're in control of illegal immigration up to our border. When you get to our border, the Biden administration is in control, in theory, and they're failing. What would I say today? That nobody on our side of the border is in control. That, if you think our border is not open, you should not be allowed to drive. How can the secretary of homeland security stand in front of the American people, given the image we're seeing today, and saying that the system is working? It's not working. And what -- the corrective action, if you get nothing else out of this interview, what he's saying about changing policy won't work. It's going to get worse, not better. SMITH: Well, he just talked about all the resources they have been sending to the border. And the American people should see that this right now is the result of that. Somebody's keying into me. If you can lift that. I will finish by asking you this, Senator. What is this costing the average hardworking American family that this administration says they're out to help the most, as you see these tens of thousands of migrants flowing over the border, 10,000 in a day the other day? GRAHAM: Right. SMITH: What is this costing the average American family? GRAHAM: Oh, billions of dollars. OK, the highest level of fentanyl coming at our country has happened in the last two years. It's costing Americans their lives in terms of the invasion of fentanyl. In terms of illegal immigration, the amount of money it takes to process these people is enormous. We're sending 1,500 soldiers not to deter illegal immigration, to get them through the system so more can come. We'd be better off not sending soldiers, because the soldiers are making it easier to release people into the country. They're not deterring illegal immigration. So what is it costing America? Your sovereignty. We're losing our sovereignty. ROBERTS: Senator, we know that you got a skedaddle for votes in the Senate. GRAHAM: Yes. ROBERTS: We thank you for being with us as long as you could. We will let you jog back over there. GRAHAM: Thank you. ROBERTS: And we will go back to the White House and hear Mayorkas again. SMITH: Thank you, Senator. ROBERTS: Thank you.

Joe Concha on 'Hannity' talked about the pressure networks will face if they decide to invite Donald Trump: "I wonder for not only CNN but ABC, CBS, NBC, remember in 2016 Donald Trump guest hosted "Saturday night live" when he was running for president. He was on with Colbert, Kimmel. All these places will be petrified now to extend an invite because they are afraid of the boycotts, they are afraid of the backlash. Again, this is the leading candidate for the GOP Nomination and you are going to have the media organization scared of their own audiences for putting him on and putting it on his perspective."

MSNBC's Joy Reid opening monologue on Donald Trump's CNN town hall: "Donald Trump, who by now you know was handed an opportunity to speak to his fans and a national audience last night on CNN. And it went as well as you'd expect because Trump was what we already knew who he is, a liar, a narcissist, and a fascist. So it was an unmitigated disaster, in everyway, and a reckless insult to our democracy. It is completely fair to say we didn't need a town hall to find out what candidate Trump thinks. Since he was president for a whole four years. So it's not as though he needed a town hall to introduce himself. Even worse CNN somehow managed to stack the audience with a MAGA crowd that hooted and hollered and lapped up every line you expect from people who already voted for him. A Trump rally is what it actually was. The twice impeached, liable for sexual abuse former president steamrolled CNN host Kaitlan Collins from the very start and unleashed a fire hose of lies and smears for 70 minutes with the barest push back."

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) on 'Hannity,' criticized the media and Democrats for ignoring issues of today: "The press especially the liberal press they can't focus on the present, look at what we brought out through the Oversight Committee under the leadership of James Comer. We documented that Joe Biden and his family have taken money from the Chinese and from Romania. We have documented that. They don't want to talk about that they only want to talk about the southern border, all the things that you talked about the only thing that will keep their agenda alive at the end of the day in America, it's about the radical left agenda for the press." "It's about that agenda," Donalds continued. "The only thing that keeps it agenda alive is a talk about the past, talk about these other things. I think American voters they understand what happened on January 6th it really was a really tough day for our country but they are looking at what's going on now and they are looking towards the future and we need a commander in chief who is focused on getting America back on track."

On 'The Ingraham Angle,' Newt Gingrich believed why he thinks Donald Trump won't be at any Republican primary debate: "The average American now faces as you point out in the last segment the millions of illegal immigrants, face with a total collapse of a crime in big cities, face with inflation rate that is eating up family budgets, you go down the list." "Let me get this straight, Donald Trump is fighting for me and they are fighting against Donald Trump," Gingrich said. "And what that does is it makes Donald Trump stronger his current numbers in a Republican primary are so staggering I doubt if he'll be in a single debate between now and getting in the nomination because is no reason for him to. He is 25-30 points out of everybody else. The reason is he is seeing everyone by everyone on the right is the one person for the courage and the strength to stand between them and a truly crazy left-wing establishment. We know it should because now watch them take this for seven straight years, and he is still standing. It's an astonishing performance."

"Trump is not actually running for a second term-he is running for a forever term," says Chris Hayes. "The problem with giving that man a stage and an audience...is that that view-"I should rule"-is not a view that can be debated."

Megyn Kelly discusses how CNN dropped the ball on their Town Hall with former President Donald Trump, their failure to prioritize their audience over their agenda, the flaws in Kaitlan Collins' moderation, Chris Licht's defense of the event. MEGYN KELLY: My thoughts on the CNN Town Hall last night – it failed on every front except one: it was wildly successful in giving Donald Trump an hour of free air time to make his case without laying a glove on him. Congrats, CNN. My biggest takeaway on this thing is town halls or debates meant to help primary voters decide on a candidate ought to be hosted by anchors who understand what is important to that candidate's party. I realize Kaitlan Collins once worked for the Daily Caller, but her days of connecting with GOP audiences are apparently over. The topics pushed by CNN in this thing might as well have been selected by Rachel Maddow or the never-Trump Lincoln Project... Where were the questions about inflation or the banking crisis and what to do about it? She spent 3 minutes on the economy and 20 on January 6th and the last election. How about a question on why he didn't fire Fauci, whether he regrets the lockdowns, where he stands on women's rights vis-a-vis the trans community, what his plans are to address the intelligence agencies' capture by hard partisans, whether government should be used to shut down corporate ideologies that Republicans don't like as his rival Ron DeSantis is doing in Florida. What would he do about tech censorship of conservatives? One third of the debate on whether he lost last time around, the insurrection, and pardons for its participants may be cat-nip for the left, but it's not what's driving GOP voters.

Steve Bannon on Trump's CNN town hall and the media reaction: "What has freaked the media out is that MAGA is ascendant. Trump was triumphant. MAGA is ascendant. And they understand we're going to win the primary, we're going to win the general and Donald John Trump is going to be the 47th President of the United States."

CNN host Anderson Cooper on Thursday apologized to the network's audience for its own town hall event with former President Donald Trump last night and told viewers they have "every right to be outraged." Cooper never once referred to Trump by name, instead choosing to call him "that man." "You have every right to be outraged today and angry and never watch this network again," Cooper said. "But do you think staying in your silo and only listening to people you agree with is going to make that person go away? If we all only listen to those we agree with, it may actually do the opposite. If lies are allowed to go unchecked as imperfect as our ability to check them is on a stage in real time, those lies continue, and those lies spread. If you're angry or upset, I understand, but you have the power to do something about it. You can actually get involved. You can make a difference, whatever side of the aisle you're on. After last night, none of us can say I didn't know what's out there. I didn't know what's coming. We asked Republican Senators for their thoughts about last night. Some preferred not to say anything. Others did." Full monologue: ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Before we begin with tonight's broadcast, I want to say something about what we witnessed at last night's town hall. Many of you have expressed deep anger and disappointment. Many of you are upset that someone who attempted to destroy our democracy was invited to sit on a stage in front of a crowd of Republican voters to answer questions, and predictably, continued to spew lie after lie after lie. And I get it. It was disturbing. It was disturbing to see and hear that person refer to a black law enforcement officer as a thug, an adjective he used many times to describe black men and called Kaitlan Collins, the moderator, nasty which is what he calls any woman who stands up to him. It was disturbing to hear him speak so highly of QAnon conspirators and insurrectionists who assaulted police officers and democracy on January 6th. And it was awful to hear him spread ridiculous lies about the election. And it was especially disturbing to hear that audience, young and old, our fellow citizens, people who love their kids and go to church, laugh and applaud his lies and his continued defamation of a woman who according to a jury of his peers he sexually abused and defamed. As good a job as Kaitlan Collins did trying to fact-check him, it is impossible to fact-check fully because he lies so shamelessly. Now many of you think CNN shouldn't have given him any platform to speak. And I understand the anger about that, giving him the audience, the time. I get that. But this is what also get. The man you were so disturbed to hear from last night, that man is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president. And according to polling, no other Republican is even close. That man you were so upset to hear from last night, he may be president of the United States in less than two years. And that audience that upset you, that's a sampling of about half the country. They are your family member, your neighbors, and they are voting. And many said they're voting for him. Now maybe you haven't been paying attention to him since he left office. Maybe you've been enjoying not hearing from him thinking it can't happen again. Some investigation is going to stop him. Well, it hasn't so far. So if last night showed anything, it showed it can happen again. It is happening again. He hasn't changed, and he is running hard. You have every right to be outraged today and angry and never watch this network again. But do you think staying in your silo and only listening to people you agree with is going to make that person go away? If we all only listen to those we agree with, it may actually do the opposite. If lies are allowed to go unchecked as imperfect as our ability to check them is on a stage in real time, those lies continue, and those lies spread. If you're angry or upset, I understand, but you have the power to do something about it. You can actually get involved. You can make a difference, whatever side of the aisle you're on. After last night, none of us can say I didn't know what's out there. I didn't know what's coming. We asked Republican Senators for their thoughts about last night. Some preferred not to say anything. Others did.

This is what's known as a 'false dilemma fallacy' https://t.co/9rJV0ff5oj

- Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) May 12, 2023

FOX News White House correspondent Peter Doocy on Thursday reported on the expected migrant surge at the border as Title 42 ends. President Biden said it would be "chaotic for a while." "All of this could be the new norm. President Biden predicting the border will be chaotic for a while... Yesterday, Mayorkas said everything is fine. The president does predict chaos," Dana Perino said. "Chaotic is not a word that you ever hear a commander-in-chief use to describe one of their own policies. But President Biden is basically saying that's just the way it is," Doocy reported.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on the White House debt ceiling meeting postponement: "The White House didn't cancel the meeting. All of the leaders decided it's probably in the best of our best interest to let the staff meet again before we get back together."

Tom Bevan, Carl Cannon, and Eric Felten join Andrew Walworth to discuss the political repercussions of Donald Trump's appearance on CNN. Also, the latest chapter in House Republicans' continuing investigation into the Biden family's business activities, and the Vatican's efforts to protect Catholics inside China as Beijing increasingly cracks down on religious freedom.

RCP White House correspondent Philip Wegmann to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas: "Republicans have challenged you on this point on Capitol Hill, and I wanted to give you an opportunity to respond. You know, they point to Border Patrol's own numbers which show going back to October of last year, there were more than a million apprehensions, but then there were also more than 530,000 got-aways, that's roughly the size of the population of the city of Baltimore. How can you say that the border is not open?"

RCP's Phil Wegmann asked Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas how he can say that the border is "not open" when at least hundreds of thousands of people illegally enter the country each year. PHIL WEGMANN: Republicans have challenged you on this point on Capitol Hill and I want to give you a chance to respond. They point to Border Patrol's own numbers which show going back to October of last year would show there were more than a million apprehensions, but there were also more than 530,000 got-aways. That's roughly the size of the population of the city of Baltimore. How can you say the border is not open?? DHS SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: So we removed, returned, and expelled 1.4 million -- ask those 1.4 million people if they think the border is open. Our apprehension rate at the border is consistent with the apprehension rate in prior years, thanks to the extraordinary work of the United States Border Patrol.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas praised the honor and talent of the agents of the U.S. border patrol during a press conference Thursday about the end of Title 42, immediately conjuring memories of the 2021 scandal where members of the the Biden administration denounced Border Patrol agents on horseback as images of "systemic racism" when their reins were mistaken for whips. Related Video: Mayorkas: Border Agents With Reins "Conjured" The Worst Elements Of Our "Ongoing Battle Against Systemic Racism" Related Video: Biden on Border Agents With Reins: "I Promise You, Those People Will Pay" Related Video: Sen. Mike Lee To DHS Secretary: Why Did You Not Defend The Border Patrol Agents In "Whip" Incident? DHS SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: We can not overstate the extraordinary talent and heroism of the United States Border Patrol and the personnel of the Department of Homeland Security that are managing through an extraordinary challenge and doing so successfully.

"FOX & Friends" co-host Steve Doocy pushed back against House Oversight Chairman James Comer's claims to have uncovered a big scandal for the Biden administration, calling all the evidence presented at a much-publicized press conference yesterday only "circumstantial." STEVE DOOCY: I know the Republicans said that the smoking gun was these financial records that you were able to subpoena and got your hands on that show some of the president's relatives were paid more than ten million dollars from foreign sources between 2015 and 2017, and your party, the Republican investigators say that is proof of influence peddling by Hunter and James [Biden,], but that is just your suggestion. You don't actually have any facts to that point. You've got some circumstantial evidence. And the other thing is, of all those names, the one person who didn't profit -- there's no evidence that Joe Biden did anything illegally. REP. JAMES COMER: Well if you look at the laptop and the emails between the president's son and his associates, they went to great lengths to hide Joe's involvement. They even gave him nicknames... but make no mistake, Joe Biden was involved.

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday called a bill to make assaulting a law enforcement officer a deportable offense. "Republicans like to see them lined up at the border because they know that's a stream of labor ready to be exploited with cheap, if any, compensation," Johnson said. "If you could get back to slavery, you would gladly do so," Johnson said. "You would settle for that. And that's the race to the bottom that we have with immigrants lined up at the border trying to get in and go to work."

As the Covid-era "Title 42" immigration policy expires, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will join the White House briefing to discuss an expected surge in illegal immigration.