Sarah Sanders defends Trump's cyberbullying: He didn't start it
Sanders apparently thought it was ‘ridiculous’ to even ask about Trump’s infamous cyberbullying.
As First Lady Melania Trump got ready to roll out her anti-bullying initiative, Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended Trump’s bullying by arguing that bullies existed before his presidency.
At Monday’s White House press briefing, NBC News’ Peter Alexander noted that Trump would be appearing at Mrs. Trump’s rollout event, and asked if Trump takes any responsibility “for this climate that exists right now, that there is a need to address cyberbullying?”
“I think the idea that you’re trying to blame cyberbullying on the president is ridiculous,” Sanders said. “When it comes to kids, that’s something that’s been problematic, and something that we have seen over the last decade.”
Sanders’ argument appears to rest on the premise that Trump is not technically a child, and did not invent cyberbullying himself.
But as Alexander’s question implies, Trump has become perhaps the most well-known and prolific cyberbully in the world. Trump’s Twitter habit long predates his election, and included spreading the racist “birther” conspiracy theory during the 2012 election.
Since then, Trump has combined cyberbullying with abuse of office in ways that no one ever imagined, bullying entire companies, feuding with a nuclear-armed dictator, sexually harassing a sitting U.S. Senator, and inciting violence against journalists.
Trump has also used his Twitter feed to defend white supremacy and to carry on his racist feud with NFL players.
Trump has even tried to bully his way out of a federal investigation into his campaign, repeatedly using his Twitter account to obstruct justice. And just this Monday morning, Trump used his Twitter account to threaten investigators conducting the Russia probe, just the latest example of Trump attacking special counsel Robert Mueller and his team via Twitter.
Trump may not have invented cyberbullying, but in the relatively short period of time he has been in office, Trump has become the symbol of the exact sort of abuse that Melania Trump is trying to eliminate.
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