President Donald Trump defended his highly controversial posting of a video on social media that included a clip of former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama depicted as apes.
The White House claimed last week that the clip was posted by a staffer and that Trump had not seen the video, which was widely condemned as racist. Trump has rejected calls to apologize for posting the clip.
“Mr. President, have you fired or disciplined that staffer who posted the video from your account that included the Obamas?” asked CBS’s Weijia Jiang.
Trump replied, “No, I haven’t. That was a video on, as you know, voter fraud, and a fairly long video, and they had a little piece that had to do with ‘The Lion King.’ It’s been very well—it’s been shown all over the place, long before that was posted. But that was a very strong, and I’m sure you saw it, very strong piece on voter fraud. And the piece that you’re talking about was all over the place many times, I believe for years. Yeah, please.”
Another reporter than asked, “Mr. President, were you aware that Secretary of Commerce visited Epstein’s Island, and do you continue to have—”
Trump jumped in, “No, I wasn’t aware of it, no. I didn’t. I actually haven’t spoken to him about it. I wasn’t. But from what I hear, he was there with his wife and children. And I guess in some cases, some people were. I wasn’t. I was never there.”
Watch the clip above via Fox News.
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