White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Monday insisted that President Donald Trump has not expressed support for the Confederate flag even though he complained about NASCAR banning the symbol.
At a White House briefing, McEnany was asked about Trump's tweet claiming NASCAR's ratings had faltered because it banned the Confederate flag.
"Why is the president so supportive of flying the Confederate flag?" NBC's Peter Alexander wondered.
"I think you're mischaracterizing the tweet," McEnany replied. "The tweet was aimed at pointing out that the FBI report of the alleged hate crime at NASCAR concluded that the garage door pull which had been there since last fall was obviously not targeted at a specific individual because, in fact, it was a garage pull."
Alexander pointed out that his question had been about the president's support for the Confederate flag.
"The president never said that," McEnany shot back. "Again, you're taking his tweet completely out of context."
"The president said that NASCAR saw bad ratings because they took down the Confederate flag," Alexander observed. "Does he believe NASCAR should fly the Confederate flag and why don't they fly it here?"
"The flag was mentioned in the broader context that he rejects that NASCAR men and women who go to these sporting events are racist," McEnany opined. "When in fact, as it turns out, what we saw with the FBI report in the alleged incident of a hate crime, it was a complete indictment of the media's rush to judgment."
ABC's Jonathan Karl followed up by asking McEnany to clarify if the president believes NASCAR made a mistake by banning the Confederate flag.
"He said he was not making a judgement one way or the other," McEnany asserted. "The intent of the tweet was to stand up for the men and women of NASCAR and the fans."
Watch the video below from Fox News.
