President Trump goes off-script on immigration during speech in West Virginia
WEST VIRGINIA -- President Donald Trump tore up his script on tax reform and launched into a tirade on immigration and voter fraud.
"This was going to be my remarks, it would have about two minutes, but to hell (throws paper) with it. That would've been a little boring, a little boring," President Trump said on Thursday while in West Virginia.
Instead, he riffed on one of his favorite topics, immigration.
As a caravan of migrants make their way from Honduras through Mexico seeking political asylum, Trump ordered the National Guard to the border.
The president suggested that there's a rampant level of rape among the Central American migrants, while repeating his controversial line that Mexicans are rapists.
"Remember my opening remarks at Trump Tower when I opened? Everybody said, 'Oh, he was so tough,' and I used the word rape. And yesterday it came out where this journey coming up, women are raped at levels that nobody has ever seen before," Trump said.
Women and girls crossing the border through Mexico do face the threat of sexual violence. A 2010 amnesty report estimated that 60 percent on the journey are at risk.
But the leader of the caravan told ABC News that there have been no reported cases on their journey.
Trump, saying the situation has reached quote "a point of crisis," requested between 2,000 and 4,000 troops on the border until the wall is built.
His frustration mounting not just on immigration. Despite dismantling his voter fraud commission, he's maintaining previous false claims about massive election theft.
"A lot of times it doesn't matter because in many places, like California, the same person votes many times. You probably heard about that. They always like to say, 'Oh that's a conspiracy theory.' Not a conspiracy theory folks," Trump said.
There has been an uptick in crossings in March, but overall they are down by nearly 13 percent compared to last year. And 2017 had the lowest recorded illegal crossings since 1972.
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