Sarah Sanders: Trump as responsible for bomb packages as Bernie Sanders is for baseball game shooting
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters on Thursday morning that President Donald Trump is “certainly not responsible for sending suspicious packages to someone, no more than Bernie Sanders was responsible for a supporter of his shooting up a Republican baseball field practice last year.”
.@PressSec draws false equivalency between Trump inciting violence against reporters & Bernie Sanders having deranged fans
"The president is certainly not responsible for sending suspicious packages, any more than Bernie Sanders was for supporter shooting up a baseball practice" pic.twitter.com/GEoaB1Vf7z— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 25, 2018
Huckabee Sanders talked to reporters in the White House driveway, making reference to the suspicious packages containing “potential explosive devices” sent on Wednesday to several prominent Democrats, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, as well as to the CNN headquarters.
The press secretary was referring to an attack by a lone gunman who opened fire on a group of Republican lawmakers practicing for a congressional baseball game in June 2017. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) was injured alongside several others. Police shot the gunman who later died of his injuries at a hospital. The shooter was allegedly a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
Huckabee Sanders also lambasted the media during her chat with reporters, saying that 90 percent of the media coverage on Trump is “negative.” When asked by one reporter if Trump regretted any of the comments he’s made in reference to the press, Sanders said:
“Look, the president’s condemned violence in all forms and has done that since day one and will continue to do that, but certainly feels that everyone has a role to play.”
"You guys continue to focus only on the negative," @PressSec tells reporters about their coverage of Trump. During exchange in the WH driveway, she said 90% of media focus on @POTUS is negative. and first thing CNN did was to accuse pres of being responsible for bomb devices. pic.twitter.com/UaaK7XIJyg
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) October 25, 2018
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders: “Look, the President’s condemned violence in all forms … but certainly feels that everyone has a role to play" pic.twitter.com/73bbpTwYDX
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 25, 2018
The press secretary has been vocal about the response the public has given to the surge of suspicious packages. She slammed CNN on Wednesday night over network president Jeff Zucker criticized the Trump administration’s rhetoric towards the press:
″[President Donald Trump] asked Americans ‘to come together and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the USA’” Huckabee Sanders tweeted in response just after a Trump rally in Wisconsin. “Yet you chose to attack and divide. America should unite against all political violence.”
Huckabee Sanders also called the idea that Trump would be behind the packages sent to his opponents “disgraceful,” adding that there’s quite a difference between “comments made and actions taken.”
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
