President Donald Trump was highly criticized Friday after waiting many hours before even acknowledging the horrific terror attack on New Zealand that left 49 Muslims dead. When he finally tweeted about it Trump refused to call it terrorism, despite New Zealand’s government having specified it was.
Minutes ago Trump tweeted he just spoke with the New Zealand Prime Minister, but again refused to label the slaughter of Muslims terrorism. One of the terror suspects is a white nationalist and a white supremacist.
Instead, Trump tippy-toed around it, calling the act of terror, “horrific events that have taken place over the past 24 hours.”
The White House did issue a statement Friday morning, again refusing to use the word terror or terrorism. Instead, they opted to call them, “the attack in Christchurch.”
Meanwhile White House Director of Strategic Communications Mercedes Schlapp appears to have lied to reporters earlier today when asked about the White House’s response, especially in the light of the fact the suspect named President Trump as, essentially, a role model for his actions.
Schlapp not only appeared to scold reporters for the suspect’s words, but then told reporters President Donald Trump “has made it very clear that this is a terrorist attack.”
NCRM can find no evidence to support that claim – certainly none in the President’s tweets, nor even in White House statements.
The White House is welcome to respond to NCRM directly.
UPDATE: 3:57 PM ET –
President Trump spoke with reporters in the Oval Office minutes ago. We’re awaiting full remarks but it again appears he did not use the word “terrorism”: