Trump official confronted with president’s ‘white power’ video by CNN’s Tapper
CNN’s Jake Tapper kicked off his interview with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on Sunday morning by confronting him with a video promoted by Donald Trump that showed a Florida supporter shouting “white power” and pressed him to explain why the president would do such a thing.
Invited on to talk about the administration’s efforts to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, Azar was immediately put on the spot by the “State of the Union” host who showed a clip from the viral video.
“I do have to ask you,” Tapper began. “I’m stunned that the president retweeted this video in which one of his apparent supporters shouts white power. I assume that that’s not a message you stand by.”
“I’ve not seen that video or that tweet, but obviously neither the president, his administration nor I would do anything to be supportive of white supremacy or anything that would support discrimination of any kind,” Azar attempted.
“Do you think that was a mistake by the president?” Tapper pressed.
“As I said, I’ve been here getting ready to speak to you,” the Trump administration official replied. “I’ve not seen that, and so I don’t want to comment further on that. But obviously the president and I and his whole administration would stand against any acts of white supremacy.”
“We just played it for you, but I’ll move on,” the CNN dryly replied.
Watch below:
