and suggested the new york times is working hand in hand with democrats to try to make up stories about him to embarrass him. the president dismissing this reporting altogether really tough to read this reporting coming from the new york times that indicates that there is rampant disease and hunger and just horrifying unhealthy conditions and detention facilities. many of which are hosting minors. the president says that he has been told that the people running these facilities are doing an incredible job. key administration officials on immigration says there s strained resources. the president blaming democrats suggesting if they worked with him in congress, they could get more done if they closed immigration loopholes that conditions would improve. the president was also specifically asked if he would visit one of these facilities to see the conditions for himself. he did not directly answer the question. instead, the president suggesting that he would allow
inside these centers paint a dark picture. a congressman who visited a center in el paso says some migrants spent days, even weeks without showers. the new york times reports outbreaks of scabies and chickenpox in some overcrowded centers. children crying constantly and a stench from clothes. and the president says those migrants are happy with what s going on. in all cases if you look, people that came from unbelievable poverty that had no water. they had no anything. where they came from, those are people that are very happy with what s going on because relatively speaking, they re in much better shape right now. i want to bring in cnn s white house correspondent boris sanchez. what else did the president say about the reporting on the detention centers? reporter: president trump reportedly called this a hoax
the press to visit the facilities to document it for themselves. okay. boris sanchez reporting for us. thank you. with us now to discuss is national reporter for the washington post wesley lowry, and the washington bureau chief for the chicago sun times lynn sweet. first your reaction to the detention centers and the awful conditions we re hearing that exist there. well, first and foremost it s obvious the new york times isn t working with any partisan parties. journalists have been doing amazing work trying to document what s been going on at the border. the reporting itself is pretty stunning in terms of the conditions folks are facing in terms of the disease and the lack of availability to resources. and i think it s important as journalists we continue to push for access to spaces. these are detention centers being run in our collective names and no matter what s happening in the centers, we need sunlight and we need to see what s going on inside of them. i think the reportin
district has built out a bigger case with bigger facts. we ll know more tomorrow. it was dogged reporting that this case, the story wide open. talk about the power of journalism. it really is an example of incredible local reporting by the miami herald and particularly one julie cay brown who stayed on this and would not accept this ridiculous deal that this guy got. and i think she really it was advocacy journalism in the sense that she felt for the victims. she wanted to step up and dig this out, and boy, you know, we ve heard an awful lot about the demise of local journalism and local papers but look how incredible this reporting was and how vital it was. part of what makes this compelling is epstein has powerful and influential friends or former friends, perhaps, including britain s prince andrew, former president bill clinton, donald trump, and journalist tim o brien who wrote a book about trump called trump nation, the art of being the donald.
this place. the only way that credible information will be determined is to have reporters or other with other third parties to go in and just do spot inspections on the surprise basis. i don t doubt that a few detention centers might be able to be cleaned up if something is going to be staged. the point is the reporting is credible. the president seems not to be curious enough to find out for himself, okay, let s just take that as a given. i don t think one or two or even three trips by him is the issue. the issue is show the administration what s going on in a way they can t deny it so maybe they will do something about it. i want to pivot to new polling released showing trump s approval rating at 44% at an all time high with a 51% approval on the economy. the overall disapproval rating is at 53%. wesley, what do you make of his approval rating going up? certainly.