White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley Tuesday rejected arguments that President Donald Trump's rally rhetoric played a role in the El Paso shootings Saturday, insisting that nobody is blaming Democrats for other shooting incidents.
"That is absolutely ridiculous," he said during an interview on Fox News' "Overtime Outnumbered." "We do not blame, nor do we even dream of blaming Elizabeth Warren for the shooter in Ohio who wanted to vote for her, (or) the supporter of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who carried out a terrorist attack, trying to blow up a DHS I.C.E. Facility, using her language of concentration camps.”
In addition, the administration isn't blaming former President Barack Obama for the death of Dallas police officers, said Gidley, because "we wouldn't dream of doing it."
However, he did slam Obama for his comments after the El Paso shootings, which have been widely regarded as a slam on President Donald Trump and his administration.
“If only Barack Obama was in a place to make a difference at some point in his life," said Gidley. "Wait a minute, he was president of the United States!”
He added that Obama's comments about not listening to leaders who use racist speech "take us backward and take us to a dark place that we never want to be and we never want to visit."
In Obama's statement, which does not mention Trump by name, he slammed leaders who "demonize those who don't look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life, or refer to other people as sub-human, or imply that America belongs to just one certain type of people."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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