Trump Deletes Retweet That Included Racist Language
A video shared by President Trump on Twitter Sunday includes a man who appears to be a Trump supporter saying "white power" in response to protesters. How did the White House respond?
NOEL KING, HOST:
Yesterday, President Trump tweeted a video. It shows a man riding in a golf cart with Trump signs on it. Confronting a group of protesters, that man yells white power. White power, of course, is a white supremacist slogan. The president deleted the tweet after a few hours, but this is something that he does not infrequently. He will use or retweet racist language. For more on this, I'm joined by White House correspondent Ayesha Rascoe. Good morning, Ayesha.
AYESHA RASCOE, BYLINE: Good morning.
KING: What happened in that video?
RASCOE: So this is a video posted on Twitter that apparently was taken at The Villages, which is a retirement community in Florida. It shows Trump supporters riding in these golf carts with Trump campaign signs, and there are other people protesting, yelling insults about the president as the people in the golf carts drive by. Almost immediately, you hear some protesters yelling racist at the people in the golf carts, and then you hear, very clearly, one of the people in the carts respond by saying white power.
So yesterday morning, the president retweeted this video saying, quote, "thank you to the great people of The Villages." But then after a lot of pushback yesterday, the tweet was deleted.
KING: And what did the White House say in the aftermath?
RASCOE: So Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere said in a statement that President Trump is a big fan of The Villages. He said that the president did not hear the statement white power in the video and that what the president saw was, quote, "tremendous enthusiasm" from his many supporters. Now, there was not an apology there in that statement, nor was there even a condemnation of the white supremacist phrase that was used.
KING: NPR White House correspondent Ayesha Rascoe. Ayesha, thank you.
RASCOE: Thank you.
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