Rachel Maddow breaks into tears over 'tender age' shelters
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow had to fight back tears on-air Tuesday night as she struggled to read the Associated Press' report about the Trump administration operating "tender age" shelters for babies and young children. "This is incredible. Trump administration officials have been sending babies and other young children," said Maddow, before choking up. After a brief pause, Maddow continued, saying, "To at least three…" but needed to pause again, as she began to break down into tears. Maddow then attempted to ask her producers to cut away by displaying a graphic, as she asked, "Can we put up the graphic of this? Thank you. Do we have it?" While Maddow tried her best to continue to read the report, she eventually realized she couldn't continue and decided to abruptly end the segment by throwing to Lawrence O'Donnell, who was reporting live from Brownsville, Texas. Maddow later apologized for her emotional breakdown on Twitter, followed by a thread of tweets explaining what she, understandably, had a hard time saying out loud.
Ugh, I'm sorry.
If nothing else, it is my job to actually be able to speak while I'm on TV. What I was trying to do -- when I suddenly couldn't say/do anything -- was read this lede: 1/6 — Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018
"Trump administration officials have been sending babies and other young children forcibly separated from their parents to at least three “tender age” shelters in South Texas...
2/6— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018
"Lawyers and medical providers who have visited the "tender age" shelters described play rooms of crying preschool-age children in crisis...
3/6— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018
"Decades after the nation’s child welfare system ended the use of orphanages over concerns about the lasting trauma to children, the administration is standing up new institutions to hold Central American toddlers that the government separated from their parents...
4/6— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018
“The thought that they are going to be putting such little kids in an institutional setting? I mean it is hard for me to even wrap my mind around it,” said Kay Bellor, vice president for programs at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, “Toddlers are being detained.”
5/6— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018
All from this Associated Press story that broke while I was on the air tonight, but which I was unable to read on the air:https://t.co/2VBLTVxvQq
Again, I apologize for losing it there for a moment. Not the way I intended that to go, not by a mile.— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018
