After White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt used her Monday press conference to blame Democrats for a lone gunman attempting to crash the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night. MS NOW reporter Laura Barrón-López pushed back with a list of physical threats President Donald Trump has made over the years.
Leavitt was presented with a question from a Fox News reporter, wondering what needs to be done to lower the political temperature after the unsuccessful assassination attempt.
Leavitt happened to have a list on hand containing names and quotes from Democrats who have criticized the president and his administration that she read from while accusing them of inciting violence.
Following the press conference, Barrón-López noted that Donald Trump has a long history of more than just heated rhetoric, including threatening to have critics physically assaulted or shot — which she recited for host Chris Jansing.
“The president, just last year, was talking about seditious behavior committed by Democratic lawmakers, saying that seditious behavior is ‘punishable by death,’" she stated. “And he also re-posted, saying, ‘Hang them. George Washington would, that's something that he did previously.’ He floated the idea of executing the former Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley.”
“Again, the president, since he entered the scene in 2016, has repeatedly talked about using violence against his enemies,” she continued. “He did this during 2016 rallies when there were protesters, saying he'd like to, ‘punch them in the face.’ And notably, his former Defense Secretary Mark Esper put in a memoir that Trump asked, ‘Why can't we just shoot protesters? Just shoot them in the legs or something?'’’
“So this is a president who has over and over again talked about using violence against his enemies, talked about retribution,” she stated before pointing out, “And yet that is not something that this White House has addressed or talked about in the aftermath of any of the political violence that we've seen across the country, despite the fact that many Americans feel as though it's rising.”