White House Spokesman Attempts To Defend Trump's 'Lynching' Remarks

Hogan Gidley told reporters on Tuesday that Trump wasn’t “comparing what’s happened to him with one of our darkest moments in American history.”
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On the heels of a tweet from President Donald Trump on Tuesday morning where he compared the ongoing impeachment inquiry against him to “a lynching,” White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley offered a defense that completely skirted the issue at hand.

While talking to reporters outside the White House, Gidley said that Trump wasn’t “comparing what’s happened to him with one of our darkest moments in American history.” Thousands of Black Americans were killed by lynch mobs in the Jim Crow-era South.

“I understand that there are many people in the media who don’t agree with his language,” said Gidley. “He has used many words to describe the way he’s been relentlessly attacked.”

The spokesman went on to say that Trump has done “many things” to help African-American communities.

While Gidley argued that Trump did not mean to compare his impeachment inquiry to one of America’s “darkest moments,” the president used that exact language in his Tuesday tweet: “So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights. All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here - a lynching. But we will WIN!”

Gidley’s attempt to tell reporters about Trump’s contributions to African-American communities echoed his appearance on Fox News earlier Tuesday.

“HBCU funding is at historic levels,” explained Gidley in the segment, who added factoids about “opportunity zones in inner cities,” criminal justice reform and more.

Gidley also provided a similar defense of Trump’s language.

“The president wasn’t trying to compare himself to the horrific history in this country at all,” said Gidley.

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