The White House: Trump used the term “lynching” because the media is so mean to him
On Tuesday morning, the President horrified the nation when he compared the impeachment proceedings unfolding against him to a “lynching” in a tweet that also made it clear he would not mind if this same “lynching” was done to the next Democratic president, no matter what they had done.
So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights. All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here – a lynching. But we will WIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 22, 2019
Outrage immediately erupted on social media as major political figures pointed out how offensive it was to compare the racially-charged hangings of black Americans by white supremacist terrorists to the investigation of the president for abuses of power that he himself publicly admitted to.
The White House immediately rolled out Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley to try to do some damage control, an increasingly difficult task to do as the administration seems to be constantly torn on whether or not the best course of action is to try to gaslight and downplay the president’s remarks or lean in to them and pretend that it’s a super normal and cool thing to say.
Today, they’ve decided to go with “downplay.” Gidley told reporters that “the President is not comparing what’s happened to him with one of the darkest moments in American history,” even though there could be no other interpretation of the use of the term “lynching.” Scrambling for any leg to stand on, Gidely then retreated to the Trump team’s usual response to everything, which is to accuse the media of being too mean to Trump.
Gidley pointed out that the President “has used many words to describe the way he has been treated,” which is admittedly true since the president has been complaining about it nonstop for three years. When reporters asked him if he would admit that it was inappropriate to use the word “lynching,” Gidley explained that Trump was “clearly articulating the way he feels [the media] has been treating him since day one.” When pressed on the issue, Gidley doubled down and complained that Trump has been “relentlessly attacked by the mainstream media since before he took office.”
His comments make it clear that there is no excuse for the President’s comments, and this obsession with excusing Trump’s appalling remarks just because “the media was mean” is absolutely surreal. The president’s pearl-clutching persecuted witch-hunt act is growing old, and it’s about time we really gave him something to complain about.
Watch it here:
Hogan Trying to defend the use of the word “lynching” pic.twitter.com/KnYuJLTDca
— Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) October 22, 2019
