CNN, McCains, White House Reporters Call on Trump to Condemn Violent Parody Video

Aidan McLaughlinOct 14th, 2019, 8:54 am
 

President Donald Trump is facing calls to condemn a parody video shown at a conference of his supporters that featured him massacring members of the media and his political rivals.

The New York Times first reported the video — played at a conference at the Trump National Doral resort featuring Donald Trump Jr. and Sarah Huckabee Sanders — that shows Trump violently murdering an array of his perceived foes in a church, from John McCain to Mika Brzezinski to CNN to Black Lives Matter to George Soros. The parody uses a famous scene from 2014 film Kingsman: The Secret Service.

ABC News reporter and White House Correspondents Association president Jonathan Karl called the video “vile and dangerous” and issued a statement on behalf of the group:

The WHCA is horrified by a video reportedly shown over the weekend at a political conference organized by the President’s supporters at the Trump National Doral in Miami. All Americans should condemn this depiction of violence directed toward journalists and the President’s political opponents. We have previously told the President his rhetoric could incite violence. Now we call on him and everybody associated with this conference to denounce this video and affirm that violence has no place in our society.

CNN — which is the last victim of Trump’s rampage in the parody, taking a stake through the throat — issued a statement calling on the president to denounce the video.

Sadly, this is not the first time that supporters of the president have promoted violence against the media in a video they apparently find entertaining — but it is by far and away the worst. The images depicted are vile and horrific. The president and his family, the White House, and the Trump campaign need to denounce it immediately in the strongest possible terms. Anything less equates to a tacit endorsement of violence and should not be tolerated by anyone.

In August, a Trump supporter was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sending pipe bombs to CNN and other opponents of the president.

In a Monday morning tweet, White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham wrote that Trump will watch the video “shortly” but is getting the condemnation out of the way first:

“That video was not produced by the campaign, and we do not condone violence,” a spokesman for the Trump campaign told the Times.

Cindy and Meghan McCain also spoke out against the video on Twitter:

Other journalists, pundits and figures murdered by Trump in the parody weighed in on the video:

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Aidan McLaughlin - Editor in Chief

Aidan McLaughlin is the Editor in Chief of Mediaite. Send tips via email: aidan@mediaite.com. Ask for Signal. Follow him on Twitter: @aidnmclaughlin