Isa, what’s your stance on the Trump administration’s immigration policy?
Isa: A lot of things I see are headlines that people repost on Instagram, which I know can be biased, but I’ve seen the videos of children in cages and children separated from their —
Barbara: Okay, okay, okay. I’m going to interrupt you. You know who started that, right? You know who built those cages, right? Obama.
Isa: Regardless of who started it, it’s still happening, and Trump doesn’t want to say that separating children from their families while they’re trying to immigrate is wrong. It’s just inhumane, in my opinion, to separate a seven-year-old and put them in a group of other seven-year-olds who have no idea what is going —
Barbara: But it’s because they’re trying to figure out if these kids actually belong to these parents, if these kids are being abused, what these kids are suffering under these adults saying that they’re the parents. That’s why they’re doing this, and it’s not for a very long time. It’s 24, 48 hours. It’s not like they’re separating them for 30 days. That’s not what’s happening.
I think often they’re separated for longer periods than that.
Barbara: In order to protect the child, right? With human trafficking and all this stuff that’s happening, they want to protect the minor.
Isa: Have you ever seen a picture of one of those facilities? How could you call that protection of anyone? They don’t have a blanket to sleep on.
Barbara: But come in legally. I’m sorry, there’s a legal process.
You alluded to this before, Barbara, how Obama was nicknamed the deporter in chief. Do you think Trump’s been unfairly singled out for his immigration policy?
Barbara: Oh, yeah, 100%. I don’t think the man can do any good. I mean, listen, the guy’s a jerk. The guy’s a New York businessman, and I know what New York businessmen are like because I lived there. But do I think he’s been treated unfairly? Yeah, absolutely. The slant in the media is just insane. I just wish there was something that was nonpartisan, but I can’t find anything.
What news outlets are you reading both reading?
Isa: I get the morning emails from WaPo and the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. And then BBC and NPR; sometimes I’ll look at The Hill, The Guardian. I won’t look at the New York Post or Fox News unless I see something that piques my interest.
What about you, Barbara?
Barbara: I listen to NPR. I read CNN and Fox News every morning. Those are my three things.
Did you see a bias in how the media reported on Trump’s relationship with white supremacist groups?
Barbara: Three times in the town hall he said, “I denounce the white supremacists.”
Isa: Yeah, and then he started talking about QAnon, and he was like, “Well, they’re against pedophilia.” What is that? QAnon is a conspiracy theorist group.
Barbara: I think he should’ve denounced QAnon earlier. But I agree. He’s trying to not lose his base and looking at it through a political lens.
Isa: How do you feel voting for someone whose base is white supremacists?
Barbara: Isa, there’s two men, and there’s like 50 issues, right? You’re not going to agree with every single issue of a candidate.
Isa: I agree.
Barbara: You have to weigh what’s important to you.
Isa: For me, white supremacy is a deal-breaker.
Barbara: But I don’t think he’s a white supremacist!
Isa: I don’t know, I look at his history, even before being president, what he was doing with the Central Park Five, how he was releasing ads about they needed to be jailed. He was calling for their deaths. And then you look at his business, and he wasn’t hiring any Black people.