Peter Doocy of Fox News asked White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre if the administration would stop calling former President Donald Trump a “threat.” Jean-Pierre told Doocy that his question was “incredibly risky.”
Several reporters had already asked Jean-Pierre to react to Trump’s claim that the second attempt on Mr. Trump’s life was inspired by the language used by the White House and Kamala Harris’s campaign.
Numerous reporters and Jean-Pierre said that Trump’s claim was “without proof,” even though the suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, had said similar things to Biden and Harris, such as “democracy is up for vote.”
Jean-Pierre had said that the government was against political violence but that Trump was a threat to democracy, either because of the riot in the Capitol on January 6, 2021, or because of the way he talks about things in general.
Then Doocy asked a question:
“According to reports, someone tried to kill Donald Trump again not long ago. And you’re calling him a threat from the stage in the White House press room. How many more attempts on Trump’s life until the president, vice president, and you choose a word other than “threat” to describe him?”
Jean-Pierre told him that was “incredibly dangerous in the way that you’re asking it.”
She then said again that the White House did think the former president was a “threat to democracy” because of January 6th.
Doocy then asked if it was possible that people who are mentally ill would miss her call to step down from the political rhetoric and act on the word “threat”:
“Isn’t it a worry that people are taking that literally?”
She responded: “We’re giving models. We’re not saying that just to say it. January 6, Peter. January 6. How many times do I have to?” She then said again that the government condemned violence.
