Several verified accounts on Twitter watching the final presidential debate appeared to be unfamiliar with the term “coyote” used to call individuals involved with illegal smuggling.
“Tonight on blue checkmark twitter, they don’t know what coyotes are,” Writer and online streamer Sophia Narwitz tweeted after President Trump said that many children are brought to the United States across the border “by coyotes and lots of bad people.”
Tonight on blue checkmark twitter, they don’t know what coyotes are.
(This isn’t even half of all I found 🥴) pic.twitter.com/Jsh57jSBb1
— Sophia Narwitz (@SophNar0747) October 23, 2020
“Coyotes, dawg?” former ESPN host Jemele Hill tweeted roughly 20 minutes after calling Trump a “f—ing moron.”
Coyotes, dawg?
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) October 23, 2020
“Did @realDonaldTrump just say 545 kids they can’t find their parents for came over through ‘cartels and coyotes’?!” Democratic Georgia state Rep. Dar’shun Kendrick tweeted. “How the hell does a coyote bring a whole human across the border?! Lord—–stop talking.”
Did @realDonaldTrump just say 545 kids they can't find their parents for came over through "cartels and coyotes"?! How the hell does a coyote bring a whole human across the border?! Lord—–stop talking. #FinalDebate
— Dar'shun Kendrick (@DarshunKendrick) October 23, 2020
Imagine calling the immigrant parents that bring their children to the United States for a better life “Coyotes”
The level of xenophobia is sickening.
— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) October 23, 2020
Other comments from verified accounts included, “Coyotes?”, “Ok maybe I’m not so smart can someone explain to me how coyotes bring over children?”, and “Kids came over on coyotes to America? Am I missing something?”
“Children are brought here by coyotes and lots of bad people, cartels, and they’re brought here, and it’s easy to use them to get into our country,” Trump said in the debate. “We now have a stronger border as we’ve ever had. We’re over 400 miles of brand new wall, you see the numbers, and we let people in, but they have to come in legally.”
Story cited here.