White House deputy spokesperson Hogan Gidley on Tuesday defended President Donald Trump, who recently compared his ongoing impeachment inquiry to a lynching.
Trump made the comparison on Twitter, where he wrote: “All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here – a lynching. But we will WIN!”
Gidley was asked about the remark during an appearance on Fox News.
“The president has used many words all kinds of language to talk about the way the media has treated him since the moment he came down the golden escalator,” Gidley said dismissively. “The president is working for the American people and that’s what this is about. An unfair secretive process for the Democrats. If you are pulled over for a traffic ticket you get more due process.”
Fox News host Sandra Smith asked Gidley if the president would consider taking down the tweet since African-American lawmakers have expressed outrage.
Related: Two Prominent Republicans Defend Trump’s Claim Impeachment Inquiry Is a ‘Lynching’ (Video)
“Let’s talk about what the president has actually done for the African-American community as opposed to so many who just talk about it,” Gidley snapped. “This president has done more to lift the lives of all Americans than anybody else. He is not going to take a back seat to anybody. This relentless attacks from the mainstream media have got to stop. They knew exactly what he was talking about here. He was very clear.”
“Would the president ever consider that maybe it was a poor choice of words and maybe rephrase his wording on impeachment?” Smith pressed.
Gidley said that he had not spoken to the president about the tweet.
“I can speak about poor choices, what the media tries to do to him every day,” the White House spokesperson complained. “The president wasn’t trying to compare himself to the horrific history in this country at all.”
“What he was trying to point out clearly was that he has been attacked relentlessly by the mainstream media without cause, without evidence since the day he took over in this office,” he concluded.
Watch the video below from Fox News.