NBC News faced backlash Friday afternoon after it tweeted out a news article that featured a quote from an immigration activist who compared the illegal immigrants that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) sent to Martha’s Vineyard to “trash.”
The deleted tweet stated: “Florida Gov. DeSantis sending asylum-seekers to Martha’s Vineyard is like ‘me taking my trash out and just driving to different areas where I live and just throwing my trash there,’ a founding member of a foundation which helps refugees says.”
The quote was from Max Lefeld, a founding member of the Casa Venezuela Dallas foundation, which helps migrants, according to NBC News.
“Holy s—. Wow,” political commentator Jason Howerton tweeted. “Sometimes you really just want to shut up and let them talk.”
Former Republican Senate candidate in Ohio Bernie Moreno tweeted, “Jill Biden compares Hispanics to breakfast tacos and the extremists democrats, who make money from the suffering of illegal immigrants, compare migrants to ‘trash.’ I wonder why @NBCNews deleted their tweet? @NBCLatino Que paso?”
“Uh, wow,” Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin tweeted.
“‘You see, migrants are literally trash’ – Compassionate Libs explaining how actually DeSantis is the bad guy,” the popular conservative account Comfortably Smug tweeted.
“NBC News compares migrants to trash,” political commentator Stephen L. Miller tweeted.
“It can’t have been this easy,” Commentary Editor and MSNBC contributor Noah Rothman tweeted. “It just cannot be that Republicans would stumble into this stunt and their opponents would adopt all their arguments while also making themselves into fastidious, snobbish caricatures. It just cannot be.”
“Refugee group compares immigrants to trash and NBC just runs with it,” Daily Caller reporter Laurel Duggan tweeted.
DeSantis’ office confirmed earlier this week that it sent the illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard as “part of the state’s relocation program to transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations.”
“States like Massachusetts, New York, and California will better facilitate the care of these individuals who they have invited into our country’ by incentivizing illegal immigration through their designation as ‘sanctuary states’ and support for the Biden Administration’s open border policies,” the statement continued. “In this past legislative session the Florida Legislature appropriated $12 million to implement a program to facilitate the transport of illegal immigrants from this state consistent with federal law.”
Related: Newsom Demands DeSantis Debate Him, Gets Mocked By His Own Ex-Staffer: You’re ‘Losing The Argument’