Two members of President Donald Trump’s administration on Sunday insisted that the President’s tweet claiming that a subway bombing in London was perpetrated by “sick and demented people who were in the sights of Scotland Yard” was not criticism of the British law enforcement agency.
“What you saw was a reaction to the fact that this is terrible,” United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
She said Trump “would not want to do any harm to the investigation.”
“So if he goes out and gets emotional and passionate about the fact that he’s upset at what happened in the U.K., I mean, of course, that’s what he put out there,” Haley said. “But there was no ill intent with that. I think it was the fact that he was just very concerned and very disturbed.”
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster claimed on ABC’s “This Week” that Trump was “communicating” that “law enforcement professionals, intelligence professionals have these terrorist organizations under scrutiny.”
“But not these individuals,” George Stephanopoulos interjected. “To be clear, the President did not know from any intelligence he had that Scotland Yard had these perpetrators in their sights, did he?”
“What he’s meaning to communicate is that we look at these organizations every day,” McMaster said.
McMaster: Pres. Trump's Scotland Yard tweet meant officials "have these terrorist organizations under scrutiny" https://t.co/fHx9zLwL7e pic.twitter.com/VKi3QdxLuT
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) September 17, 2017