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November 30, 2017

White House Spokesperson: "Whether It's a Real Video, the Threat is Real"
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Two of the videos retweeted by Trump which were filmed in Egypt and
Syria and presented without context, were titled, "Islamist mob pushes
teenage boy off roof and beats him to death!" and "Muslim Destroys a
Statue of Virgin Mary!" A third video titled, "Muslim migrant beats up
Dutch boy on crutches!" shows one teenager kicking and punching another.
Local media said the assailant was in fact born and raised in the
Netherlands. The Dutch embassy condemned the tweeting of this video.
At the White House, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was grilled
by reporters over the videos.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders: "Look, again, whether it's a real video, the
threat is real, and that is what the president is talking about. That's
what the president is focused on, is dealing with those real threats,
and those are real no matter how you look at it."

Reporter: "Does it matter if it's a fake video?"

Sarah Huckabee Sanders: "Look, I'm not talking about the nature of the
video. I think you're focusing on the wrong thing."

In the U.S., Muslim groups were swift to condemn Trump's retweets, which
drew praise from Trump's far-right supporters. Louisiana politician and
former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke tweeted, "Thank God for Trump!
That's why we love him!" We'll have more on Trump's Islamophobic and
racist tweets after headlines with award-winning British journalist and
broadcaster Mehdi Hasan.


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