White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has been accused of “gaslighting” Americans and being “hypocritical” after expressing outrage over photos of Minneapolis protesters raising their middle fingers at the camera.
Critics of the Trump administration noted that Levitt’s statement during Thursday’s daily news briefing came a day after the White House downplayed the president’s displeasure with a Ford plant employee.
Levitt accused the liberal “establishment” of encouraging the Minneapolis protesters, whom she called “left-wing demagogues.”
“If you look at some of the images from Minneapolis last night. Look at this car and look at what it says: it says ‘F ICE.’ These guys were proudly raising their middle fingers in front of the camera,” Levitt said.
“People wouldn’t do it without encouragement from people in power who make it seem like there’s nothing wrong with it,” the press secretary continued.
Critics of Trump expressed displeasure with Levitt’s comments and shared photos of the president giving the middle finger.
“Who’s going to tell her?” said liberal influencer Joanne Carducci, who tweets under the name JoJoFromJerz.
“This is so rich considering her boss did the exact same thing this week. Oh wait, but that’s an ‘appropriate response’ from the President,” another X user wrote on Twitter. “The hypocrisy and gaslighting of these people is so severe that I think they’re starting to really believe their own lies.”
Another user said of Levitt: “Is she that stupid?”
The White House press secretary addressed the media hours after Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to quell protests.
“If Minnesota’s corrupt politicians don’t follow the law and stop professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking ICE patriots who are just trying to do their job, I will enact the Insurrection Act, as many presidents before me have done, and quickly end the travesty that is taking place in this once great state,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Society profile.
The Insurrection Act of 1807, which authorized the president to deploy U.S. troops in response to civil unrest, was last used by then-President George H.W. Bush, who had support from local officials in using it.
Read the original article on al.com.