‘How Did This Happen?’ Laura Ingraham Confronts Karoline Leavitt on Trump’s Racist Obama Post
Fox’s Laura Ingraham confronted White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt over a racist AI-generated video that was posted by President Donald Trump’s Truth Social account.
Late Thursday night, the president shared a 62-second video in which former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama are depicted as apes. After backlash from across the political spectrum, the post was deleted on Friday morning. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), the Senate’s only Black Republican, called it “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.”
The White House blamed an unnamed staffer for the post.
Hours later, Leavitt appeared on The Ingraham Angle, where the host asked her about the video:
INGRAHAM: I know you’ve been dealing with this today, but Donald Trump’s Truth Social post set off a firestorm online. I only noticed it this morning because I was writing, but it was a video that he posted portraying Michelle and Barack Obama with an ape motif and I guess there were other politicians who were portrayed in other animal motifs as an internet meme. Tim Scott, senator, obviously African American, said he was “Praying it was fake because it was the most racist thing he had ever seen out of the White House. The president should remove it.”
Karoline, I know the president did remove it, deleted it, but it was up for, I think, 12 hours or something like that. How did this happen? And can you really throw a staffer under the bus for that?
LEAVITT: Well look, Laura, it was a meme posted by a staffer on the president’s Truth Social account. It was from a Lion King video depicting, as you pointed, out different Democrats as different animals. I think Kamala Harris was depicted as a turtle in this video meme. The president did take it down. He spoke with lawmakers today out of respect for them, including Senator Tim Scott. The post was removed. But leave it to the leftist media, of course, to talk about this all day rather than talk about the fact that the Dow has broken over 50,000 points for the first time in our nation’s history.
Ingraham responded by noting that Republicans had also criticized the post:
INGRAHAM: But, you know, it’s not just Democrats, though. There are Republican senators, Pete Ricketts, others say, “Look, we understand, the president should come out and apologize for it and say, ‘Look, this was a mistake. Sorry if it offended anyone.'” Why not?
LEAVITT: Well look, I won’t get ahead of the president, Laura. And he may be speaking with the press later today. But he did take down the post. And again, this is merely a distraction for the fake news media.
Shortly after Leavitt’s appearance, Trump told a press gaggle that he did not watch the whole video and said he will not apologize because “I didn’t make a mistake.”
Watch above via Fox News.
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