Democrat Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) stirred controversy on Saturday by suggesting that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) might use “manufactured” footage to depict law enforcement agents being body falsely slammed during the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka at the Delaney Hall Detention Center.
During an interview on CNN’s Newsroom, Watson Coleman claimed that during a tour of the ICE facility, she and fellow Democrats faced delays and difficulty getting in. However, once inside, they heard a commotion, went outside, and saw the mayor talking with ICE officials, who then asked the mayor to leave. She insisted Baraka complied despite video footage saying otherwise.
“We were there for a tour. ICE was giving us the runaround. We finally got into a facility. We heard some noise. We came out, we found that the mayor was there and they were an ICE was having conversations with him. They asked him to leave the facility. He left the facility,” she said.
Host Fredricka Whitfield asked whether Watson Coleman disagrees with the DHS spokesperson’s claim on CNN that the mayor and members of Congress were “body slamming” and being rough with ICE officials.
“Yeah, so how ridiculous does that sound? There are 200 pounds. They’ve got about 35 pounds worth of stuff around them, including a gun on their arms. I can tell you what I think about what they’re saying,” she said. “The President of the United States opens his mouth every day and lies. He can’t breathe without lying. He’s given permission to his cabinet and those who work for him to lie, and she’s lying too.”
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However, Whitfield challenged her claims, noting that the released body cam footage shows no signs of violence or any instance of Baraka being body slammed.
Watson Coleman continued to insist that the DHS was lying.
“No, if there’s any such body—kind of footage, it is footage that is manufactured for this purpose. Because I said it before, and I’ll say it again, they are lying,” she said.
