On Friday, NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff made several appearances on MSNBC to promote an anti-Trump documentary he helped make based on a book he wrote about the 2018 policy of separating illegal immigrants from their children at the border.

On Morning Joe, in the absence of Joe and Mika, Jonathan Lemire showed a trailer for the film and then introduced Soboroff and film maker Errol Morris as guests:

That was a look at the powerful new documentary from NBC News Studio, titled Separated, based on the New  York Times bestselling book of the same title from NBC News national and political correspondent Jacob Soboroff and directed by Academy Award-Winning filmmaker Errol Morris.

Without putting into context that the Trump administration was trying to keep illegal aliens incarcerated until they could be deported, which meant their children had to be separated from them, Soboroff claimed the purpose of the policy was to "hurt" people: "...- 5,500 kids were deliberately separated from their parents for no other reason than to harm them -- to hurt them -- to scare their people from coming to the United States."

Soboroff seemed content with the Biden administration's disastrous -- and sometimes deadly -- handling of illegal immigration as he answered a followup question:

WALTER ISAACSON: You just mentioned that it's part of a pattern of deterrence that's happened for two decades now. What is the alternative to that?

SOBOROFF: The alternative is a system as the Biden administration had laid out when Alejandro Mayorkas came in as the Homeland Security secretary -- one that is orderly, humane and fair. I'm not an immigration policy expert -- I'm a journalist who witnessed this myself -- and what I can tell you is what happened in the summer of 2018 was not that.

Morris soon declared that he was "scared" of Trump and that "I wish Donald Trump would deport himself."

A few hours later, as afternoon host Katy Tur also spoke with Soboroff and Morris, she observed the timing of the film being released during the presidential election: "When you started this, Donald Trump wasn't running for office again. I think we could say that, right? Do you see it now as a warning?"

Morris reiterated his fears:

I think he was always running for office. He was always somewhere lurking in the shadows, and he's frightening. I can tell you, quite simply, he frightens me. It's a visceral reaction. I don't even think it's intellectual anymore.

Soboroff hit Democrats from the left as he complained that they also in past administrations have pushed a policy of "deterrence" against illegal immigrants.

And, when the duo appeared again on Deadline: White House, host Nicolle Wallace recalled that children were kept in cages during the Trump administration without mentioning that the cage-like structures were built by the Obama administration for practical reasons to help protect women and children.

Transcripts follow:

MSNBC's Morning Joe

October 4, 2024

9:41 a.m. Eastern

JONATHAN LEMIRE: That was a look at the powerful new documentary from NBC News Studio, titled Separated, based on the New  York Times bestselling book of the same title from NBC News national and political correspondent Jacob Soboroff and directed by Academy Award-Winning filmmaker Errol Morris. The film describes the impact of the Trump administration's family separation policy at the southern border. And both Jacob and Errol join us now. ... So this is a story that obviously you have been covering for a long time. Viewers of this network will feel like they know it, but tell us why this film is so important.

JACOB SOBOROFF: Well, I mean, don't take my word for it. Listen to what the George W. Bush-appointed judge in the Southern District of New York who stopped this policy said about it. He said it was "one of the most shameful chapters in the history of this country." Not my words -- Dana Sabraw's words, Republican-appointed judge -- 5,500 kids were deliberately separated from their parents for no other reason than to harm them -- to hurt them -- to scare their people from coming to the United States.

It's part of a pattern of immigration policy in the United States that is bipartisan that revolves around deterrence and scaring people from coming here by hurting them and most profoundly obviously with this famous example of the Trump family separation policy. And there is still questions about why this happened, how it could have happened, how the nation let it happen, and that's why Errol and I decided to get together to make what Errol has done -- a spectacularly beautiful film that only Errol Morris can make.

WALTER ISAACSON: You just mentioned that it's part of a pattern of deterrence that's happened for two decades now. What is the alternative to that?

SOBOROFF: The alternative is a system as the Biden administration had laid out when Alejandro Mayorkas came in as the Homeland Security secretary -- one that is orderly, humane and fair. I'm not an immigration policy expert -- I'm a journalist who witnessed this myself -- and what I can tell you is what happened in the summer of 2018 was not that.

(...)

He (Trump) wanted to reinstate it, and he still has not said whether or not he would reinstate it. And that's why there are, you know, that's why I think the film is so important -- what Errol has done -- is so important -- to answer questions about what the future holds as much as it does in the past, including what the Biden administration has promised but hasn't done, which is have a wholesale radical departure from an immigration system based on deterrence and cruelty (?).

LEMIRE: So, Errol, there's also of course a timeliness to this film because it's not just that Donald Trump was President. He is the Republican nominee for President. He stands about a one in two chance of being President again. And some of his policies, including forced deportation of immigrants including some who are here legally, is what he is saying, very much your film has a timeliness here. Talk to me about why you think it was so important to come out now and your, frankly, fears of what the next Trump term will look like.

ERROL MORRIS, FILM MAKER: I'm scared. I wish Donald Trump would deport himself.

LEMIRE: Fair enough. And with that, we'll leave it right there perfectly and briefly said with some real brevity.

(...)

MSNBC's Katy Tur Reports

October 4, 2024

3:59 p.m.

KATY TUR: When you started this, Donald Trump wasn't running for office again. I think we could say that, right? Do you see it now as a warning?

ERROL MORRIS: I think he was always running for office. He was always somewhere lurking in the shadows, and he's frightening. I can tell you, quite simply, he frightens me. It's a visceral reaction. I don't even think it's intellectual anymore.

(...)

SOBOROFF: He's put it in the context -- Errol has the way only Errol can as a film maker -- of decades of bipartisan deterrence-based policy. What Donald Trump did wouldn't have been possible were it not for Democratic administrations creating -- its treating immigration as a deterrence policy -- something to punish and harm people for coming to the United States to do, and that's how we ended up with the separation policy -- how we ended up where we are today.

(...)

MSNBC's Deadline: White House

October 4, 2024

5:45 p.m.

NICOLLE WALLACE: Earlier this week at the vice presidential debate, J.D. Vance opened the door to returning to one of the darkest periods in our country's history, and that was Donald Trump's policy of forcibly separating children from their parents who were trying to immigrate to the country. Thousands of children were taken from their parents under this policy -- some as young as four months old -- and kept in wire cages.

(...)

JACOB SOBOROFF: We're looking down the barrel of the exact same policy potentially happening again in this moment, and they're employing some of the same rhetoric. And I do want to point out, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't -- and part of the reason that we wanted to tell the story is we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the bipartisan deterrence-based nature of immigration policy in the U.S.

The Biden administration just put forward one of the most conservative immigration bills in the history of the country. But nobody has ever done what the Trump administration did, and nobody has used it, employed it, deployed it in the campaign in the way they're continuing to do.

ERROL MORRIS: We hear arguments that this has been done before, that this is no different from what was done in the Obama administration, the Bush administration, the Clinton administration. Did they have immigration policies that were draconian -- that were filled with, I would say cruel policies, but nothing on this level.