involves real troops, migrants and real issues at our border. early whier this week soldiers in nigeria opened fire on unarmed religious protesters. 45 people were killed. military says the protesters threw stones can they fired in self-defense. today the nigerian army posted video of president trump s speech on its spirit feed saying we released it saying if president trump can say rocks is as good as a rifle who is amnesty international. joining us now, jack reed. i spoke to him earlier this even. senator i wonder what went through your mine when you heard the president earlier trying to walk back his suggestion that he should shoot back at migrants who throw rocks or treat rocks like guns? my initial reaction when i heard the president talking about using military forces to shoot at civilians who throw rocks it was completely illegal,
this week when he suggested that migrants that throw rocks at military service members at the border could be shot. he said he would advise military service members at the border to consider thrown rocks as firearms. he tried to clean that up yesterday, telling reporters he meant only that migrants that throw rocks at u.s. officials should be arrested, and the whole reason this part of the request was rejected in the first place is because arresting migrants is illegal for troops to do in the first place. but fred, this is all coming as the president tries to make deployment of potentially thousands of troops to the border to defend the border against a caravan of central american migrants, a focus of his midterm message to gop voters as he tries to inflame passions around immigration for election day. a partial defeat but not a complete defeat. they re still moving forward on a good part of that u.s. troops on the border plan.
tonight s second installment of keeping them honest. never mind what the video shows me saying. i did not say what the video shows me saying. it will almost be funny if it didn t involve the commander in chief talking about troops he is sending to the border could or could not shoot at migrants if they were throwing rocks at them. and if those words weren t being used by foreign governments to justify them doing it. here s what the president said yesterday. they want the throw rocks at our military? our military fights back. i told them, consider it a rifle. when they throw rocks like they did at the mexico military and police, i say consider it a rifle. consider a rock a rifle. as you might imagine it caused something of an uproar from civilians, military commanders, you name it. today when the president tried to walk back yesterday s remarks, here s what he said
the military says the protesters threw stones and they fired in self-defense. today the nigerian army posted video of president trump s speech on its twitter feed saying we released the video saying if president trump can say rock are is as good as a rifle, who is amnesty international? joining us now, jack reed. i spoke to him earlier this even. senator, i wonder what went through your mind when you heard the president earlier trying to walk back his suggestion that the military should shoot back at migrants who throw rocks or treat rocks like guns? my initial reaction when i heard the president talking about using american forces to shoot at civilians who throw rocks it was completely illegal, completely contrary to ethics and contrary to the instructions he received to use proportional self-defense. walking it back today is just finally admitting what the
about the new jobs report, and also defending what he said about taking aim at migrants who throw rocks. here s terry moran. reporter: news of the booming economy came as a shot of adrenaline for president trump, heading into the final weekend of the campaign. and what job numbers we had today. did you hear? did you hear? well, we ll go into that. they all say, speak about the economy. speak about the economy. reporter: with just four days to go, today s jobs report gave the president something to talk about. 250,000 jobs added in october. wages rising at the fastest clip in nearly a decade. america now has the best economy in the history of our country and we want to keep it this way. reporter: the happy economic news allowed the president to pivot away from what had been his closing argument the politics of fear, stoking anxiety about that migrant caravan making its way through central america.