‘TREASONOUS’ QUIP
President called Democrats ‘treasonous’
was a joke, Trump aide says.
WASHINGTON — A White House spokesman said Tuesday that President Donald Trump was speaking “tongue in cheek” when he said it was “treasonous” for Democrats not to applaud good news on unemployment figures in his State of the Union address.
During a speech on tax cuts Monday in Blue Ash, Ohio, Trump went off script to criticize Democrats who did not respond enthusiastically when he said in his address last week that black and Hispanic unemployment had reached all-time lows during his presidency.
“Even on positive news like that, really positive news like that, they were like death and un-American,” Trump said during his remarks Monday. “Somebody said ‘treasonous.’ I mean, yeah, I guess, why not? Shall we call that treason? Why not? I mean, they certainly didn’t seem to love our country very much.”
On Tuesday morning, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told NBC News that Trump was being “tongue in cheek.” The president, Gidley said, was simply trying to make the point that there are positive things going on that all Americans should celebrate regardless of their party, NBC reported.
Gidley did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post.
The president’s characterization on Monday drew sharp criticism from Democrats, who said the language was inappropriate.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., wrote Tuesday on Twitter: “We don’t live in a dictatorship or monarchy. I swore an oath — in the military and in the Senate — to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, not to mindlessly cater to the whims of Cadet Bone Spurs and clap when he demands I clap.”
She was using a nickname she had given Trump, who had said in previous interviews that he was granted medical deferment during the Vietnam War after he was diagnosed with bone spurs in his feet.
Duckworth, who lost both legs in 2004 while serving in Iraq as an Army helicopter pilot, then shared this quote from Theodore Roosevelt, from an opinion piece the former president wrote during World War I: “To announce that there must be no criticism of the president or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Democrats have said Trump is taking undue credit for a trend that began under President Barack Obama. Since the recession’s end, unemployment rates for all demographic segments have fallen, including blacks and Hispanics.
The black unemployment rate was at its lowest point in history in December after it was more than cut in half during the last three-quarters of Obama’s presidency. The unemployment rate for black Americans actually jumped in January, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
Trump said Monday that Democrats had decided in advance not to applaud.
“It was a game, you know they play games,” Trump said. “They were told, don’t even make a facial movement.”
Democrats have said Trump is taking undue credit for a trend that began under President Barack Obama.