President Trump said Monday that media outlets blaming him for the New Zealand mosque attacks were “ridiculous.”
“The Fake News Media is working overtime to blame me for the horrible attack in New Zealand,” he tweeted. “They will have to work very hard to prove that one. So Ridiculous!”
This tweet comes after news outlets have criticized Mr. Trump for saying he does not think there’s a rising threat of white supremacy around the world, saying Friday it was “a small group of people that have very, very serious problems.”
Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, added that Mr. Trump has “denounced bigotry many times,” referencing Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s blackface controversy over his medical school yearbook.
“We have, just over the bridge here, ladies and gentlemen, a sitting governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia who can’t decide if he is the one in the blackface or the Ku Klux Klan hat, and it’s like it went, ’poof!’” she said.
New Zealand shooting suspect Brenton Harrison Tarrant wrote in his manifesto regarding his support for Mr. Trump: “As a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose? Sure. As a policy maker and leader? Dear god no.”
The attack left 50 dead and 34 wounded in two Christchurch, New Zealand, mosques.
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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