Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet thinks MS-13 is is such a little threat to Americans he can’t even get the name of the gang right.
Speaking with editors at the Des Moines Register, Bennet recalled a story told to him by Montana Sen. Jon Tester.
Tester was “sitting in his tractor in Big Sandy, Montana listening to Trump who had come in to campaign for his opponent talking about MS-16, the gang,” Bennet said, getting the name wrong.
He quickly looked to his side, as if someone was trying to correct him, but Bennet persisted.
“And Jon’s sitting on the tractor saying there hasn’t been a member of MS-16 within a thousand miles of Montana ever, but the Number 1 issue in those races was this,” he said.
In 2009, the National Gang Threat Assessment estimated there are 8,000 to 10,000 MS13 members in America.
According to the Justice Department:
MS13 violence is brutal and purposeful. Violence is at the heart of the MS13 and is what has made it a target of law enforcement in the United States, Central America and beyond. It is central to the MS13’s ethos, its modus operandi, and its evaluation and discipline of its own members. Violence also builds cohesion and comradery within the gang’s cliques. This use of violence has enhanced the MS13’s brand name, allowing it to expand in size and geographic reach, but it has undermined its ability to enter more sophisticated, money-making criminal economies. Potential partners see the gang as an unreliable, highly visible target, and the gang’s violent spasms only reinforce this notion.
“Some MS13 leaders, especially those operating from jails in El Salvador, are trying to create more top-down control, and expand its social and political influence,” according to the DOJ analysis.
“In El Salvador, the gang has negotiated delivering votes to some of the country’s most powerful politicians.”
Perhaps Bennet, who is currently sitting at less than 1 percent in the most recent Iowa poll, will look into MS13 delivering him some votes — if he can just get the name right.
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