President Donald Trump inflamed a new media firestorm by referring to a female reporter multiple times as “stupid” during Thursday’s press conference. The controversy began with Trump’s Thanksgiving call to service members, where he confirmed the death of Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom.
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Clash over vetting of D.C. shooting suspect
Tensions increased when the reporter asked Trump about Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the 29-year-old Afghan man accused in the recent Washington, D.C. shootings. Referring to publicly reported details, she said the suspect had worked closely with U.S. intelligence in Afghanistan and had been vetted.
Trump denied that claim, saying Afghans who arrived were “unvetted.” When the reporter cited a Department of Justice finding that the evacuees had undergone “thorough vetting” by the DHS and FBI, she pressed him on why he blamed the previous administration.
“Because they let them in,” Trump shot back sharply before escalating. “Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person? Because they came in on a plane, along with thousands of other people that shouldn’t be here, and you’re just asking questions, because you’re a stupid person.” Trump repeated the word "stupid" three times during the exchange.
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White House defends the president
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson defended Trump's remarks. In a statement to the Daily Beast, he said, “President Trump has never been politically correct, never holds back, and in large part, the American people re-elected him for his transparency.”
The clip soon appeared online in a post from the White House's official RapidResponse47 account, described as an example of "fake news."
Reporter presses on
During the final moments of the briefing, NewsNation’s Libbey Dean asked Trump, again, if the suspect had been given asylum under his administration. Trump said, “When it comes to asylum, when they’re flown in it’s very hard to get them out, no matter how you want to do it’s very hard to get them out, but we’re going to be getting them all out.”
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He also floated a possible motive, calling the incident a "terrorism threat" and suggesting, without evidence, that the suspect might have been upset about reduced crime levels due to National Guard activity in Washington.
The confrontation comes weeks after Trump called one reporter "piggy" and described another as "ugly" on social media, continuing a streak of personal attacks on female journalists.
