White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Friday rejected the assertion that President Trump’s rhetoric incites violence after a U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant was found to have been allegedly plotting a domestic terror attack that targeted Democratic politicians and cable news journalists.
“I certainly don’t think that the president at any point has done anything but condemn violence against journalists or anyone else,” Sanders told reporters at the White House. “In fact, every single time something like this happens, the president is typically one of the first people to condemn the violence, and the media is the first people to blame the president.”
Sanders’ remarks follow the arrest of Coast Guard Lt. Christopher Paul Hasson, who worked at the Coast Guard’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., on drug and gun charges. Federal investigators said they discovered a cache of weapons and ammunition at Hasson’s Maryland home, which they believe he had been stockpiling since 2017.
According to records filed in federal court, Hasson wrote in a letter drafted to friends he was “dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on earth.”
Last month, Hasson, a self-described white nationalist, allegedly drafted a list of targets that referred to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. The list also referenced MSNBC’s Chris Hayes and Joe Scarborough, and CNN’s Don Lemon, Chris Cuomo, and Van Jones.
Trump has not commented on Hasson’s arrest but he has been accused of using inflammatory rhetoric that encourages violence against journalists.
“We’ve all known that Donald Trump and his words and his attacks about enemies of the people would lead to this type of behavior,” Scarborough said during his MSNBC show Thursday.
The president frequently refers to the media as the “enemy of the people,” and on Friday morning, he derided the “fake news,” tweeting that it is “so bad for our country.”
Fake News is so bad for our Country! https://t.co/ZwA8E0URer
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 22, 2019
Sanders said the White House consistently denounces violence and called for unity in rejecting threats against people of all political stripes.
“We should all join together and start condemning the violence, whether it’s against members of the media, whether it’s against Democrats, Republicans, any person in this country,” she said. “That is unacceptable, and that’s why every time it comes up, we have been consistent and repeatedly said that we condemn violence in all forms.”
