Dan Rather on Trump immigration order: ‘I shed a tear for the country’

Former CBS anchorman Dan Rather said “he shed a tear for the country” after President Trump’s immigration order began to be enforced on Saturday.

“Today I shed a tear for the country I know and love, the one I believe still beats in the heart of most of its citizens,” Rather wrote in a Saturday Facebook post that has since spread widely, eclipsing 110,000 shares and 265,000 likes. “The United States became the most powerful nation in the history of mankind not merely on the basis is its fearsome military, as lethal and well trained as that may be.”

“It wasn’t solely based on its unprecedented economic engine, as dynamic and far-reaching as that may be America’s greatness was forged by a Constitutional compact of grand and universal ideals that the country has tried to live up to ever since,” the 85-year-old continued.

{mosads}”But that ultimate strength has dimmed considerably in light of the recent actions on immigration from the new President Donald Trump. We are turning around desperate refugees. We are singling out men, women, and children on the basis of their faith – and we are doing all of this with a randomness and capriciousness that defies reason.”

Rather ended the post by stating he remained “optimistic that the vast majority of American people will recoil and speak out at this unwise policy.”

A Jan. 12 Quinnipac poll showed by 48-42 percent, American voters support “suspending immigration from terror prone regions, even if it means turning away refugees.”

“By a broader 53-41 percent, voters support requiring immigrants from Muslim countries to register with the federal government,” Quinnipiac also reported.

The president took to Twitter to defend the executive order signed Friday that suspended the State Department’s Refugee Assistance Program and visa entry from Syria, Iraq and five other countries.

Our country needs strong borders and extreme vetting, NOW. Look what is happening all over Europe and, indeed, the world – a horrible mess!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2017

Christians in the Middle-East have been executed in large numbers. We cannot allow this horror to continue!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2017

Rather was an award-winning anchor of the “CBS Evening News” from 1981 to 2005 before he was fired over a “60 Minutes” piece that used fake documents that called into question whether President George W. Bush fulfilled his National Guard duties during the Vietnam War.

Rather, however, has defended the foundation of the story to this day.

In 2015, a movie about the Bush National Guard story was made into a feature film starring Robert Redford, titled “Truth.”