Sarah Sanders is in the hot seat once again this time for falsely claiming that President Donald Trump has only ever condemned violence against journalists. The White House Press Secretary made her remarks Friday while being asked why the President has said nothing about the alleged Coast Guard domestic terrorist who had a spreadsheet of names of targets he wanted to kill, including top Democratic lawmakers and many journalists.
“I certainly don’t think that the president has at any point done anything but condemn violence against journalists or anyone else,” Sanders told reporters from the White House lawn, in what is a remarkably, provably false statement.
“In fact, every single time something like this happens, the president is typically one of the first people to condemn the violence and the media is the first people to blame the president,” Sanders continued, “when asked if the president had any intention of toning down his criticism of the media,” as The Hill reported.
“We should all join together and condemn the violence whether it’s against members of the media, whether it’s against Democrats, Republicans, any person in this country.”
In fact, President Trump has an exceptionally clear pattern of only responding to violent crimes when the suspects are people of color or Muslim. The President almost always ignores major stories of violence, mass shootings, and domestic terror if the suspect or suspects are white and Christian.
Trump several times has had to be shamed by public opinion and the press before speaking out against horrific acts of violence, even by white supremacists. It took President Trump hours to first comment on the deadly violence and hate crimes perpetrated by neo-Nazis, white supremacists, white nationalists, and the alt-right in Charlottesville. And even then, his comments were criticized for not denouncing the neo-Nazis, white supremacists, white nationalists, and the alt-right.
Only days later did he try to do damage control, while making it worse by blaming “both sides” in a combative event with the press.
Trump has also regularly attacked the press as the “enemy of the people.” He has singled out journalists, forcing one, NBC’s Katy Tur, to need the protection of Secret Service agents at a Trump rally to ensure she was able to leave safely.
Just this week, Trump labeled The New York Times the “enemy of the people,” in what was possibly the first time he has used the dangerous Stalin-era slur against a singular news outlet.
On Twitter, Trump has called the press the “enemy of the people” over 20 times.
“This is simply not true,” Rolling Stone’s Jamil Smith says on Twitter. “[President Trump] Encourages harassment at rallies. Gave Gianforte an atta-boy after he assaulted a reporter. Went soft on the Saudis after the suspected murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. And this would-be terrorist was echoing Trump’s own rhetoric. Come on.”
Watch Sarah Sanders falsely claim Trump has only denounced violence against the press:
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