White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany doubled down on President Trump’s suggestion that a 75-year-old protester pushed to the ground by Buffalo police was an “Antifa provocateur.”
McEnany was asked by “Fox & Friends” co-hosts Wednesday to follow-up on the tweet Trump posted on Tuesday about Martin Gugino, the man seen pushed to the sidewalk and left bleeding from his head in a now-viral video.
“So, the president was raising questions based on a report that he saw. There are questions that need to be asked. In every case, we can’t jump on one side without looking at all the facts at play. This individual had some very questionable tweets — some profanity-laden tweets — about police officers,” she said of Gugino.
McEnany went on that “no one condones any sort of violence,” but pointed out that 57 officers resigned en masse from the emergency response team in protest of the suspension of the officers involved, saying the president was raising questions about why they did that.
Trump’s tweet read: “Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?”
On Wednesday morning, criticism for the tweet continued to roll in. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough lashed out at Republicans who failed to condemn it even as Gugino laid in the hospital. During an appearance on “Good Morning America,” Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said, “To target him when everyone saw on video exactly what happened is just such a reprehensible — such a reprehensible act — and it just goes to show how far we have to go in the fight for justice in this country.”
Watch McEnany’s appearance on “Fox & Friends” below:
welp, the WH is doubling down
Kilmeade: Trump tweeted the 75-year-old protester might have been an antifa provocateur, can you expand on that?
McEnany: He was raising questions, there are questions that need to be asked in every case …This guy had profanity laden tweets pic.twitter.com/KJUjjbqQxt
— Lis Power (@LisPower1) June 10, 2020