Jake Tapper confronts Mike Pence on child camps: ‘You’re a father, a man of faith — you can’t approve of this’

This Sunday, Vice President Mike Pence sat for a contentious interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, where the host confronted him over reports of conditions at migrant detention centers on the southern border where children separated from their parents are being housed.

At the outset of the exchange, Tapper showed a clip of a Justice Department lawyer arguing before a judge that the US government shouldn’t be required to provide soap and toothbrushes to children at detention centers.

“This is the wealthiest nation in the world,” Tapper said to Pence. “We have money to give toothpaste and soap and blankets to the kids in this facility in El Paso county, right now we do.”

When Pence agreed, Tapper shot back, “Then why aren’t we?”

“My point is it’s all a part of the appropriations process,” Pence replied. “Congress needs to provide additional support to deal with the crisis at our southern border but we’ve got to get to the root causes. We’ve got to close the loopholes that human traffickers, as we speak, are using to entice vulnerable families to take the long and dangerous journey north.”

Tapper then cited an article from The New Yorker that reported children were “filthy, sleeping on cold floors, and taking care of each other because of the lack of attention from guards.”

“I know you. You’re a father, you’re a man of faith,” Tapper said, looking straight at Pence. “You can’t approve of that.”

“Well, no American, no American, should approve of this mass influx of people coming across our border,” Pence replied.

“It is overwhelming our system.”

Watch the full exchange below, via CNN:

Featured image via screen grab/CNN

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.