If the POTUS was available bit a sure they would. Statements from the Administration on this question have largely been deflected thus far.
Q Thank you, Sarah. Two quickies about last night in Tampa. First of all, does the President encourage the support of people who showed up last night in these “QAnon” and “Blacks for Trump” fringe groups?
And secondly, is the White House willing to say right now, in view of what happened with one of our TV colleagues last night, that it is wrong for his most vocal supporters to be menacing toward journalists doing their jobs in a situation like that or any situation?
MS. SANDERS: On the first part, the President condemns and denounces any group that would incite violence against another individual, and certainly doesn’t support groups that would promote that type of behavior. We’ve been clear about that a number of times since the beginning of the administration.
On the second part of your question, the President, as I just said, does not support violence against anyone and/or anything. And we’ve been very clear every single time we’ve been asked about that.
When it comes to the media, the President does think that the media holds a responsibility — we fully support a free press, but there also comes a high level of responsibility with that. The media routinely reports on classified information and government secrets that put lives in danger and risk valuable national security tools. This has happened both in our administration and in past administrations.
One of the worst cases was the reporting on the U.S. ability to listen to Osama bin Laden’s satellite phone in the late ’90s. Because of that reporting, he stopped using that phone and the country lost valuable intelligence. Unfortunately, it’s now standard to abandon commonsense ethical practices. This is a two-way street. We certainly support a free press. We certainly condemn violence against anybody. But we also ask that people act responsibly and report accurately and fairly.
