A New York Magazine reporter played an audio tape of children crying for their parents during a White House briefing on Monday as Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was taking questions from reporters.
The audio taken at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility, which has since gone viral, was published on YouTube by ProPublica shortly before Nielsen took the podium at approximately 5 p.m. ET.
The reporter who played the tape was Olivia Nuzzi, who shared why she did so on Twitter after the press briefing, citing adminstration officials who “failed to adequately and truthfully answer questions” about the controversial policy of separating families of immigrants at the border that has dominated the news cycle over the past 72 hours.
“I played the audio of children separated from their parents at a US Customs and Border Protection facility that was published by @ProPublica today at the White House briefing. Officials failed to adequately and truthfully answer questions about the policy,” Nuzzi wrote.
Nuzzi explained in another tweet that she “would have waited until I was called on to play it” but she was “not being called on.” She cited a cell phone ringing from another reporter and the briefing room being able to “deal with a more important disturbance.”
Nielsen did not respond directly to the audio and it was unclear whether she could hear it.
Nuzzi’s unorthodox decision to play the audio was met with some criticism from other media members, including the Washington Examiner’s Gabby Morrongiello.
“This was ridiculous btw [by the way],” wrote Morrongiello. “Come to the briefing to ask questions, not to pull crap like this.”
President Trump will be on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to talk immigration reform with Republicans.
Republicans and Democrats alike, including former first lady Laura Bush, have compared separating families at the border with Japanese internment camps and Holocaust trains used by Nazi Germany during World War II.
The president has since doubled down on the policy, stating, “the United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility.”