Friday, June 30, 2017

Washington Post -- Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Trump has never ‘promoted or encouraged violence.’ She is very wrong


Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan criticized President Donald Trump on Thursday for a nasty attack on MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski’s physical appearance.

“I don’t see that as an appropriate comment,” Ryan said at a press conference, less than three hours after Trump ridiculed “low I.Q. Crazy Mika” for “bleeding badly from a face-lift.”

“Deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was dispatched Thursday to defend President Trump's tweets about MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski that have earned almost universal condemnation, even from Republicans. In doing so, she made a whopper of a claim.

“When a reporter at Thursday's news briefing noted that just two weeks ago, after the shooting at a Republican congressional baseball practice, the political world talked of cooling the rhetoric to avoid such violence, Sanders was quick to respond: ‘The president in no way, form or fashion has ever promoted or encouraged violence. If anything, quite the contrary.’

“This is laughable.

‘Even if you don't believe Trump has technically incited violence (which he has been sued for), he clearly nodded toward violence at his campaign rallies. Sometimes it was veiled; other times it was unmistakable. Sometimes he was talking about self-defense, but it was clear he was advocating for a ‘form of violence.’”

The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake points out instances of Trump doing just that.

Analysis | Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Trump has never ‘promoted or encouraged violence.’ She is very wrong.  

By Aaron Blake