Why Did Rachel Maddow Cry On Live TV? Support Pours In

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow broke into tears while breaking a story from the Associated Press about three "tender age" facilities where children are being sent after being separated from their parents at the border, during her program on Tuesday.

The AP report was on lawyers and medical providers describing the play rooms of preschool-age children in the Rio Grande Valley shelters.

"Officials have been sending babies and other young children ..., "she said before breaking into tears.

She choked up while reading the report and passed the news to the hour’s next host.

Maddow took to Twitter to apologize and said she was trying to do her job but could not do anything after reading the report.

She began a thread of tweets to describe what was written in the report.

"Trump administration officials have been sending babies and other young children forcibly separated from their parents to at least three “tender age” shelters in South Texas...” she tweeted.

“Again, I apologize for losing it there for a moment. Not the way I intended that to go, not by a mile,” she tweeted before reporting the AP story.

The Trump administration is facing severe backlash over their “zero tolerance” policy that includes separating minor children from their parents at the border, after several journalists and lawmakers shared images of children being held inside chain-link fences.

The administration has separated an estimated 2,000 children from their parents, Glamour reported.

"If you are smuggling a child, then we will prosecute you, and that child will be separated from you as required by law," Attorney General Jeff Sessions had said while announcing the policy.

Kay Bellor, vice president for programs at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service said, “The thought that they are going to be putting such little kids in an institutional setting? I mean it is hard for me to even wrap my mind around it.”

“The facilities that they have for the most part are not licensed for tender age children,” Michelle Brane, director of migrant rights at Women’s Refugee Commission, told the Associated Press.

“There is no model for how you house tons of little children in cots institutionally in our country. We don’t do orphanages, our child welfare has recognized that is an inappropriate setting for little children,” she added.

Several people came out in support of Rachel Maddow after her break down on live television.

“Watching Rachel Maddow not even be able to speak, but literally break down crying talking about Trump’s latest development of 'tender age' detainment of seemingly infants to toddlers has me a little shaken, sad, and disturbed,” journalist Jarrett Hill tweeted.

“Rachel is a huge inspiration for me. This is how we should all be affected by this. & I applaud her for allowing herself to show compassion,” stand-up comic, W. Kamau Bell, tweeted.

Here are a few more reactions from Twitter.