CNN hosts Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo slammed President Trump on Friday night over his response to an alleged plan from a Coast Guard lieutenant to kill high-profile Democrats and media personalities.
At the end of his show while handing off to Lemon, Cuomo offered a monologue questioning why the president weighs in on some high-profile arrests and not others, while also urging him to denounce white supremacists.
“Why doesn’t he just call out these white supremacists?” Cuomo asked, saying it was a “no-brainer.”
“Doesn’t help him politically,” Lemon interjected when Cuomo mentioned the arrest of the lieutenant, a self-proclaimed white nationalist.{mosads}
“He just doesn’t say the right thing when he doesn’t feel like saying the right thing. Period,” Cuomo said.
“When it doesn’t help him with his base, not gonna do it,” Lemon added.
Christopher Paul Hasson was arrested on gun and drug charges Wednesday. Authorities found a cache of guns, a political hit list and said Hasson called for the use of violence to “establish a white homeland.”
“I think it’s a shame,” the president told reporters of the arrest Friday.
Critics pointed out that it had taken the president two days to condemn the planned attacks.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders came to Trump’s defense Friday, saying, “I certainly don’t think that the president has at any point done anything but condemn violence against journalists or anyone else.”
“In fact, every single time something like this happens, the president is typically one of the first people to condemn the violence and the media is the first people to blame the president,” she said.
Trump has slammed the media since the arrest was announced, saying “The New York Times reporting is false. They are a true ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!” and “Fake News is so bad for our Country!” He has also previously praised Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-Mont.) for body-slamming a reporter.