Less than 48 hours after President Donald Trump praised the "unified" reaction of journalists who had been present when a gunman attempted to storm the White House Correspondents' Dinner, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed top Democrats and the American press for the attempted assassination.
Speaking at a press briefing on Monday, Leavitt blamed the latest instance of political violence in the U.S. on what she called "systemic demonization of [Trump] and his supporters by commentators, by elected members of the Democrat Party and even some in the media."
"This hateful and constant and violent rhetoric directed at President Trump, day after day after day for 11 years, has helped to legitimize this violence and bring us to this dark moment," said Leavitt, who argued that Americans "who constantly falsely label and slander the President as a fascist, as a threat to democracy and compare him to Hitler" are "fueling" violence as part of a "left wing cult of hatred against the president and all of those who support him and work for him."
Continuing, Leavitt read off a laundry list of critical comments about the president by members of the Democratic Party in Congress and blamed "the entire Democrat Party" for having "pitch to voters across the country that Donald Trump poses an existential threat to democracy, that he is a fascist."
"When you have people in positions of power that are saying things like this every single day for years, you are inspiring violence by people who are already mentally ill," she said.
The White House press secretary also inveighed against ABC late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel for a joke he told about Trump's age and appearance during a segment of his show days before the shooting, when he had quipped that First Lady Melania Trump had "the glow of an expectant widow." "This kind of rhetoric about the President, the First Lady and his supporters, is completely deranged, and it's unbelievable that the American people are consuming it night after night after night," she said, not long after both Trump and his wife called on ABC to fire the comedian, who has long been a sharp critic of the president and his administration.
Leavitt also called for the negative commentary about Trump to "end" and for commentators to "tone it down" following the shooting. But she did not say whether Trump, who frequently lashes out at journalists and Democratic Party figures in graphic and aggressive terms, planned to tone down his own rhetoric in turn. Thus far, it does not appear Trump plans to do so.
During an interview on Sunday with CBS News' 60 Minutes, Trump attacked correspondent Norah O'Donnell as "horrible" and "a disgrace" after she quoted the alleged gunman's description of the president as "a pedophile, rapist, and traitor" while asking him to respond to his would-be assassin's words. "I'm not a pedophile. Excuse me. Excuse me. I'm not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person? I got associated with all-- stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated," Trump said. "I read the manifesto. You know, he's a sick person. But you should be ashamed of yourself reading that because I'm not any of those things." When O'Donnell pointed out that she was merely reading what the alleged shooter had written, Trump said she "shouldn't be reading that" on the show and called her "a disgrace."
