ABC News White House reporter Jon Karl asked Sarah Sanders today if Trump has “any concern at all that his words could inspire or provoke troubled people to do awful things.”
Sanders initially just responded that while Trump is trying to unite the country, he’s also going to continue to draw contrasts between Republicans and Democrats as we get closer to election day.
But Karl pressed, asking about Trump’s tweets blaming the fake news media for a lot of the anger in our country.
That’s when Sanders lit into him, saying that the very first thing Trump did was condemn the attacks. She then draws her own contrast, explaining that the very first thing the media did was blame Trump for both the pipe bombs and the shooting in Pittsburgh.
The very first thing the media did was to blame the president and make him responsible for these ridiculous acts. It is outrageous that would be the very first reaction of so many people across this country. The only person responsible for carrying out either of these heinous acts were the individuals who carried them out. It’s not the president, no more than it was Bernie Sanders fault for the individual who shot up a baseball field of congressional republicans. You can’t start putting the responsibility of individuals on anybody but the individual who carries out the crime.
When Karl persisted, he said but it’s the president who is placing blame. But Sanders countered that he’s not placing blame and that he’s not responsible, repeating some of what she said above.
What Karl is referring to is Trump’s tweet from this morning calling out the Fake News media:
There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly. That will do much to put out the flame...
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2018
....of Anger and Outrage and we will then be able to bring all sides together in Peace and Harmony. Fake News Must End!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2018
Before the president tweeted today or before he tweeted something similar on the 25th, much of the news media was already blaming him for both the mail bombs and the shooting, trying to make a connection between his political rhetoric and these heinous acts by these two individuals.
And to be clear I think Trump is referring to the political anger in the country that has in fact been created by much of the news media, not these violent acts.
Look, it’s true that the ‘enemy of the people’ is a heavy term to give the ‘fake news media’, but it’s true. Did you see how irresponsible they were during the Kavanaugh hearings? And then for them to turn around and blame Trump for these acts of violence and domestic terrorism as they were happening? Sanders is right, it is outrageous. But it’s also quite clear that once again they are gonna say whatever they can in order to get people to vote “against Trump” at the polls right now and on election day. That’s really what this is all about.
And it’s despicable.