Top Democrats within the Senate and House of Representatives have taken a Thursday quote from the White House press secretary out of context to ship a deceptive assault on President Donald Trump.
A reporter requested press secretary Karoline Leavitt at a Thursday briefing: “In addition to the ballroom and the Rose Garden patio, is the president looking at any other renovations or significant kind of projects here at the White House?”
Leavitt responded: “Not to my knowledge, no. But he’s a builder at heart, clearly. And so his heart and his mind is always churning about how to improve things here on the White House grounds. But at this moment in time, of course, the ballroom is really the president’s main priority.”
So Leavitt was clearly referring to the deliberate new ballroom as Trump’s major precedence for White House renovations. But on social media, various Democratic members of Congress have reduce out the primary half of the trade to make it sound like she was saying the ballroom was Trump’s general major precedence.
The House Democratic Caucus’s official account on the social media platform X posted a five-second clip of Leavitt saying solely, “At this moment in time, of course, the ballroom is really the president’s main priority.” The Democrats wrote within the Thursday publish: “So, Trump’s MAIN priority is a $300 MILLION ballroom? Not lowering costs. Not saving health care. Not reopening the government. Got it.”
By clipping out the query Leavitt was requested about White House renovations, the Democrats created a deceptive impression about her response.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries also posted the truncated five-second clip on X on Thursday and used it as the premise for an anti-Trump message just like the House Democrats’ tweet. And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer made an X post on Friday that didn’t embody any video however nonetheless snipped the trade in the identical method the five-second clip did.
Schumer wrote: “‘At this moment in time of course, the ballroom is really the president’s main priority.’ It’s hard to wrap your mind around it because of how callous it is. But that’s what White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt actually said. Out loud. To press. Proudly.”
A White House account responded, “This has already been debunked, Chuck,” happening to criticize Schumer and publish the context of Leavitt’s comment. The White House wrote in a Thursday response to a different Democrat: “She was answering a question specifically about construction projects on the White House grounds.”
Leavitt additionally used the phrase “main priority” at one other second of the identical Thursday briefing. After she was requested about Trump’s considering on H-1B visas, she mentioned, “The president’s main priority has always been to put American workers first and also to strengthen our visa system.”