White House Roasts CNN, MSNOW for Burying Angel Family Day: Media Shamed for Ignoring Trump’s Stand Against Illegal Crime
“Their silence is louder than our grief.” That was the refrain echoing through the East Room Monday during President Trump’s Angel Family Remembrance Ceremony-while America’s biggest left-wing networks simply looked away.
If you tuned in to CNN or MSNOW this past Monday hoping to witness the emotional ceremony at the White House honoring victims of illegal immigrant crime, you would have found wall-to-wall silence. In what’s being blasted as a “total disgrace” by the Trump administration and countless Americans, the networks refused even a whisper of coverage as family after family shared their heartbreak and President Trump signed the historic declaration of National Angel Family Day (February 22, 2026), meant to shine a light on citizens killed by those who shouldn’t have been in the country to begin with.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, always ready to call out leftist media bias, lit up the press corps, declaring CNN’s absence “a total disgrace”-sending shockwaves through the halls of the mainstream media. The outrage spiked across conservative social as heartbroken Americans demanded to know: Why is the suffering of Angel Families so politically inconvenient for TV executives?
“CNN refused to cover even one second of this event because it doesn’t fit the Left’s narrative… It’s sickening, it’s horrific, and it’s shameful,” Leavitt thundered. (Mediaite, 2/23/26)
Borders Wide Open, Coverage Slammed Shut: Families’ Voices Silenced by Left-Leaning Networks
As the Angel Families took the podium, emotional testimonies cut through the partisan fog-if only the national media had let America hear them.
The date of the solemn ceremony, February 22, was chosen for a reason. It marked the second anniversary of the brutal 2024 murder of nursing student Laken Riley, a vivid symbol for thousands of shattered families. Her mother, Allyson Phillips, delivered a heart-wrenching address that left hardly a dry eye among those present-except in the newsrooms of CNN and MSNOW, where producers evidently deemed the story unworthy of broadcast.
President Trump, refusing to let his message be “censored and suppressed,” hammered the media’s calculated silence, openly accusing them of elevating “open border” politicians over real American victims. Trump’s administration used the event to sell the Laken Riley Act, legislation he says has already led to the arrest of over 21,000 illegal aliens in just two years-a figure the corporate media, unsurprisingly, did not care to fact-check or debate on air.
“The American people DESERVE to see these stories. CNN wants to PRETEND none of this happens. That’s how you know the mainstream media is the real enemy of the people,” wrote one X (formerly Twitter) user, racking up tens of thousands of retweets and likes as the hashtag #AngelFamilies trended on conservative platforms.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, border czar Tom Homan, and dozens of family members-including those of Laken Riley, Rachel Morin, Kayla Hamilton, and Grant Ronnebeck-stood shoulder to shoulder, surrounded by American flags and grieving supporters. Among the most shocking revelations, a police officer recounted that he had previously arrested Laken Riley’s killer on child endangerment charges in New York City just months before the slaying-a chilling reminder of the failures of sanctuary city policies so often celebrated by liberal city councils and cable commentators.
Blizzard of Excuses: Mainstream Media Runs for Cover, Americans Demand Truth
The networks’ defense? “We were busy talking about the weather.” The White House, and millions of fed-up viewers, weren’t buying it.
Faced with a tsunami of outrage, CNN scrambled to justify ignoring the Angel Families by arguing they were in the midst of breaking news coverage of a historic blizzard. But the timing rang hollow for many-especially when viewers noticed hours devoted to the usual political panels, celebrity gossip, and opinion roundtables. (Even a quick remote segment of family testimony, as many pointed out, would have sufficed.)
“CNN responded to the criticism by stating that at the time of the White House event, they were covering breaking news around a historic blizzard impacting millions of Americans.” (Fox News, 2/23/26)
The backlash was immediate. Conservative commentators torched the networks for blatant narrative control: “If this was a liberal cause-if it was a climate march or progressive rally-we’d see wall-to-wall coverage. When it’s about Americans killed by illegal criminals, not a single second. It’s deliberate, it’s cowardly, and we won’t forget.”
Deputy Communications Director Kaelan Dorr called out the calculated suppression, suggesting the refusal to air segments on Angel Families “wasn’t an accident, but a cold political decision.” The networks, critics charged, know the faces behind Angel Family Day are too raw to fit their preferred storyline of open doors and zero accountability.
Even more pointed, President Trump and his team drew a line in the sand: “This administration won’t hide from tragedy, we’ll confront it. And we’ll put Americans first every single day.” This stand has fueled renewed calls for mass deportations and a total revamp of immigration enforcement, all as the 2026 midterms draw near and border security remains the hottest issue facing the party and the nation.
“We are not just numbers. We are parents, spouses, children. Our loved ones are gone, but our fight goes on. America, don’t let them silence us,” Allyson Phillips pleaded to the country.
Election Shockwaves: Immigration and Media Trust to Dominate 2026 Midterms
With voters livid, Angel Family Day could be the turning point both for border policy and the fate of a media establishment that’s lost the public’s trust.
Why did the mainstream channels ignore President Trump’s National Angel Family Day proclamation? Political motives are glaring. Coverage would have forced a reckoning with the painful reality: U.S. citizens like Laken Riley are dying due to failed border policies and empty posturing. By suppressing these stories, networks reinforce a narrative pleasing to open-border lobbyists, while the human cost keeps piling up.
The Angel Family event doubled as a megaphone for the Laken Riley Act-a law President Trump says is responsible for over 21,000 arrests already, each representing a family spared. Yet liberal media avoided even a headline, much less a live cut-in. Their blackout is exactly the sort of manipulation that the new “Truth Bomb” anthem-now trending on Real America’s Voice-warns about: “Media kings, narrative strings, bury the pain, hide everything.”
Entering the midterm stretch, the message to voters is clear: America’s border nightmare can no longer be swept under the rug by TV newsrooms. President Trump’s unapologetic stance at the White House sent a shot across the bow-not just to open-border Democrats, but to the networks hoping to make these stories vanish. Trump, standing with Angel Families, reminded America that “Never again will we let our citizens become statistics in someone’s open border experiment.”
“If you’re not willing to show the faces of heartbreak, don’t dare lecture us about ‘compassion’ or ‘justice’-not in 2026, not ever again.”
The fuse is lit. Voters are watching-this time, not through the lens of scripted cable, but through the eyes of real Americans still waiting for justice and honesty. As November approaches, Angel Family Day stands as a rallying call: No more silence. No more spin. This is the year the truth breaks through.
