NEW: Homeland Security Adviser Thomas Bossert on Trump's CNN tweet: "No one would perceive that as a threat. I hope they don't." #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/BfrWWt7buM
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 2, 2017
White House homeland security adviser Thomas Bossert on Sunday said he doesn’t think President Trump’s latest tweet featuring a modified video showing him body-slamming CNN at a wrestling match is a threat.
During an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Bossert said a lot of cable news shows are not always “very fair to the president.”
“So I’m proud of the president for developing a Twitter and a social media platform where he can talk directly to the American people,” he said.
{mosads}”In fact, he’s the most genuine president and the most non-politician president that we’ve seen in my lifetime.”
ABC’s Martha Raddatz pressed Bossert on the tweet, saying it “seems like a threat.”
“Yes, it’s certainly not, though. I think that no one would perceive that as a threat. I hope they don’t,” he said.
“But I do think that he’s beaten up in a way on cable platforms that he has a right to respond to.”
Bossert praised Trump for his ability to communicate with the American people.
“He’s the most genuine person and the people that see politicians and then see him find him to be someone that they can understand and relate to,” he said.
Trump on Sunday tweeted a modified video of him slamming CNN to the ground at a wrestling match.
The tweet escalates an ongoing war of rhetoric between the president and the cable news outlet. The video appears to show Trump attacking and subduing a figure whose face is obscured by a CNN logo.
The tweet comes after White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders last week defended the president and denied he had ever promoted violence.
“The president in no way, form, or fashion has ever encouraged any form of violence,” she said in a news briefing.