MSNBC host breaks down while reporting breaking news on what’s happening with babies at US border

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow broke down Tuesday night while delivering breaking news about babies and toddlers who are at the center of the U.S. border crisis.

What happened?

Attempting to deliver a breaking news report from The Associated Press, Maddow broke down and began to tear up.

She got about a sentence in before she had to stop, with her hand up and tears in her eyes, and asked production to put up a graphic of the report.

Production did not have a graphic to put up, so Maddow tried to power through in delivering the news.

However, she found herself unable to get it together enough to read through the rest of the briefing, and eventually had to pass off the story to another anchor via satellite.

Rachel Maddow breaks down in tears discussing the children being ripped from their parents because, you know, she’s a decent human being with a heart!!!!! pic.twitter.com/6YsvD2PJpq

— Perez (@ThePerezHilton) June 20, 2018

What was in the report?

The report, crafted by The Associated Press, reported that Trump administration officials have sent preschool-age children and babies to "at least three 'tender age' shelters" in Texas.

A fourth facility is expected to open in the coming days.

According to the report, medical professionals and lawyers have visited the shelters and reported "play rooms of crying preschool-age children in crisis."

One such health care professional who has visited the facilities is Texas pediatrician Marsha Griffin.

Griffin told the AP, “The shelters aren’t the problem, it’s taking kids from their parents that’s the problem.”

Alicia Lieberman, who runs the Early Trauma Treatment Network at University of California, San Francisco, said that studies show early child-parent separations can cause permanent damage.

"Children are biologically programmed to grow best in the care of a parent figure," Lieberman said. "When that bond is broken through long and unexpected separations with no set timeline for reunion, children respond at the deepest physiological and emotional levels.

"Their fear triggers a flood of stress hormones that disrupt neural circuits in the brain, create high levels of anxiety, make them more susceptible to physical and emotional illness, and damage their capacity to manage their emotions, trust people, and focus their attention on age-appropriate activities," she added.

Did she say anything else?

Shortly after the segment, Maddow took to Twitter to apologize to viewers for not being able to keep it together.

She wrote, "Ugh, I'm sorry. If nothing else, it is my job to actually be able to speak while I'm on TV. What I was trying to do — when I suddenly couldn't say/do anything — was read this lede: '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."

"Lawyers and medical providers who have visited the "tender age" shelters described play rooms of crying preschool-age children in crisis. Decades after the nation’s child welfare system ended the use of orphanages over concerns about the lasting trauma to children, the administration is standing up new institutions to hold Central American toddlers that the government separated from their parents," she added.

"'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,' said Kay Bellor, vice president for programs at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, 'Toddlers are being detained,'" Maddow excerpted.

She concluded, "All from this Associated Press story that broke while I was on the air tonight, but which I was unable to read on the air. Again, I apologize for losing it there for a moment. Not the way I intended that to go, not by a mile."

Ugh, I'm sorry.

If nothing else, it is my job to actually be able to speak while I'm on TV.

What I was trying to do -- when I suddenly couldn't say/do anything -- was read this lede:

1/6

— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018

"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...

2/6

— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018

"Lawyers and medical providers who have visited the "tender age" shelters described play rooms of crying preschool-age children in crisis...

3/6

— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018

"Decades after the nation’s child welfare system ended the use of orphanages over concerns about the lasting trauma to children, the administration is standing up new institutions to hold Central American toddlers that the government separated from their parents...

4/6

— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018

“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,” said Kay Bellor, vice president for programs at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, “Toddlers are being detained.”

5/6

— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018

All from this Associated Press story that broke while I was on the air tonight, but which I was unable to read on the air:https://t.co/2VBLTVxvQq

Again, I apologize for losing it there for a moment. Not the way I intended that to go, not by a mile.

— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018