MAGA Melts Down at CNN Over ICE Coverage: ‘DOJ Needs to Look at This!'
'It's disgusting,' border czar Tom Homan said on the Benny Johnson podcast Monday after the host accused the network of 'pushing an app to track ICE agents to help criminal aliens evade being detained.'
'This is horrendous that a national media outlet would be out there trying to forecast law enforcement operations throughout the country,' Homan went on. 'It's incredible where we're at as a country and I think the [Department of Justice] needs to look at this and see if they crossed a line.'
For the segment, CNN reporter Clare Duffy sat down with the 'ICEBlock' app's creator, Joshua Aaron, who explained the program allows users to anonymously mark sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on a map, with alerts then sent out to other users within a five-mile radius.
'When I saw what was happening in this country, I wanted to do something to fight back,' Aaron told the network. 'We're literally watching history repeat itself,' he added, comparing Trump's nationwide immigration crackdown to Nazi Germany.
Homan wasn't alone in taking aim at CNN for broadcasting a segment on Aaron's app. Todd Lyons, acting director at ICE, similarly described the network's coverage as 'disgusting' and suggested that the DOJ will be looking into the matter 'to see exactly what we can do.'
'It's clearly disgusting the fact that CNN will go ahead and promote this,' he said. 'They're interfering and impeding and putting law enforcement officers at risk. This app only puts law enforcement lives at risk because you're going to have people interfering in an ICE operation where they shouldn't even be there.'
During a Monday appearance on Fox News, Attorney General Pam Bondi also blasted the network. 'Shame on CNN,' she said. 'They are promoting the app, shame on them for doing that,' she went on, adding that the app's creator 'is getting a message to criminals' and that, 'We're looking at him and he better watch out.'
The Daily Beast has reached out to CNN for comment.
The team behind ICEBlock, the app behind the controversy, meanwhile told the Beast they remain undeterred by the mounting backlash. 'We will not be intimidated,' a spokesperson said. 'As long as ICE agents have quotas, and this administration ignores Constitutional rights, we will continue fighting back. No human is illegal.'
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