June 20, 2018

Corey Lewandowski Says “Womp Womp” to News of 10-Year-Old With Down Syndrome Separated at Border

“How dare you? How absolutely dare you?”

Meghan Mccarthy/ZUMA

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On Tuesday, Mexico’s foreign minister confirmed that a 10-year-old girl with Down syndrome was among the thousands of children who have been recently separated from her family while attempting to enter the United States.

“We are working to release the girl, so she can reunite with her father,” Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said in a Mexico City press conference. Videgaray described her detention as “heartbreaking.”

Corey Lewandowski, however, does not appear to agree. When confronted with the story during a Tuesday night Fox News panel, the former manager of President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign responded with a mocking “Womp womp.”

“Did you say ‘Womp womp’ to a 10-year-old with Down syndrome being taken from her mother?” fellow panelist Zac Petkanas, a Democratic strategist, asked in disbelief.

“How dare you? How absolutely dare you?” Petkanas continued, while speaking over Lewandowski as he struggled to respond.

Later on Tuesday night, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow broke down in tears while reading an Associated Press report on the Trump administration’s use of “tender-age” facilities for separated babies and toddlers . 

“I apologize for losing it there for a moment,” Maddow tweeted after cutting the segment short. “Not the way I intended that to go, not by a mile.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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