Yesterday’s news cycle may have been the craziest in a while, and part of the reason was due to the fact that President Donald Trump began the day by retweeting out three anti-Muslim videos from notorious hate group Britain First. Following his tweets, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders justified the president sending out unverified, Islamophobic videos by stating that the “threat is real” even if the videos aren’t.
With British leaders slamming Trump for amplifying a far-right fascist group’s message, Sanders was pressed at today’s White House press briefing over Trump’s Twitter activity. Asked if she feels Trump has an obligation to ensure the information he shares is accurate, Sanders pivoted to claiming POTUS was “bringing up important issues of our time like extreme violence and terrorism.”
She added, “And I think he’s going to continue to do that in a number of venues whether it’s through speeches or Twitter or other social media platforms.”
Questioned on whether she believes Trump understands sharing these videos may result in violence against Muslims, Sanders responded that the president was trying to “elevate the conversation to talk about a real issue and threat.”
John Roberts of Fox News followed up by asking the press secretary if Trump even knew he was retweeting an extreme group when he sent out those three retweets.
“No, I don’t believe so,” she said. “But I believe that he knows what the issues are. And that is that we have a real threat of extreme violence and terrorism.”
Sanders was also asked about Trump’s tweet in which he hinted that MSNBC host Joe Scarborough could be guilty of murder. “I don’t have anything to add beyond the tweets,” Sanders noted, moving on to another question.
Watch the clip above, via CNN.
[image via screengrab]
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