Donald Trump’s campaign co-chair came up empty-handed when he was asked in a Wednesday interview to provide evidence for the real estate mogul’s claim that some called for a moment of silence to commemorate the man who killed five police officers in Dallas.
Sam Clovis initially tried to avoid CNN host Chris Cuomo’s question, saying “it depends on the context” and that he has been focused on other issues.
“I’m not dodging your question,” Clovis insisted.
“Sam, you’re dodging it,” Cuomo pushed back. “You’re doing it artfully, but you’re dodging it. Context, my eye. Either you’ve seen they were calling for a moment of silence or you haven’t.”
“I personally have not,” Clovis allowed. “I’ve seen moments where I’ve seen in some of these demonstrations, I’ve seen there’s a reverence paid to the shooter that is, really, it’s startling. I think that is—when you have a person who purposefully and with intent murders five police officers, that’s terrible, and I don’t think you should celebrate that in any way shape or form.”
Trump first alluded to unnamed individuals calling for a moment of silence for the Dallas shooter on Tuesday at an Indiana rally and in an interview on Fox News. There were no media reports to support that claim, and Trump did not elaborate on who he was referring to or where he learned that information.
Cuomo likened those comments to Trump’s insistence that Muslim-Americans cheered the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, which was based on debunked media reports from that time.
