To argue that on March 23, 2005, President Bush did not call the Minutemen "vigilantes", that he was either ignorant of their formation or he had directed his comment to describe "lawless thugs" at the border is NOT credible and those types of arguments remain unconvincing.
As to his ignorance, this would mean that President Bush was uninformed as to current events and was unaware of Mexico's recent denouncement of the Minutemen. As to the existence of "lawless thugs" who were gaining notoriety at the border, there were none.
So, who could have been "those people" about whom the reporter inquired of the President? The reporter's phrasing of the question was an implication that "those people" [the Minutemen] to whom he referred was "common knowledge."
It was, in fact, common knowledge and conventional wisdom, that as of March 23, 2005, the President was fully aware of "those people". After the Minutemen's formation in January of 2005, they announced their intention to launch operations on April 1, 2005. Before that time, they were patrolling the area, making plans about where, specificaly, they would launch their operations.
By March 23, 2005, it was already known that the Mexican government was poised to take legal action against the Minutemen, as was announced by the Mexican government on March 1, 2005. By March 23, 2005, it was already known, but perhaps less commonly, that Secretary of State Condi Rice had visited Mexico two weeks earlier (March 10, 2005), and that the Mexican Government informed her of its impending legal action against and anger with the Minutemen.
One cannot assume that the Secretary of State would have neglected to inform the President that our southern "neighbor" was poised to take legal action the Minutemen. By March 23, 2005, it was common knowledge that the Minutemen were, and continue to be, referred to by other names, such as anti-migrant patrols.
To claim that the President was NOT referring to the Minutemen, who had so enraged the Mexican government, as "vigilantes" is beyond credible.
It's ludicrous for you to say that it was my claim that the president was not referring to the Minutemen.
The statement was a clear-as-day warning about what he didn't want to see on the border. It wasn't an identification of what was on the border nor was it a prediction of what he thought would be on the border.
In short, he didn't call anybody a vigilante nor did he call any group(including the Minutemen) vigilantes. Instead he said people and groups(including the Minutemen) shouldn't act like a vigilantes.
Your calim has no credibility.