today with Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Watch Sarah Huckabee Sanders struggle to explain Trump's post-Parkland tweets
On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders held her first press briefing in over a week. There was a lot to address: In the last week, 17 people were killed at a high school in Parkland, Florida, by a teenager armed with a semiautomatic rifle; Special Counsel Robert Mueller announced the indictment of 13 Russians for meddling in the 2016 election; and President Trump tweeted nearly 50 times.
In one notable tweet, the president claimed the FBI missed a tip about the Parkland shooter because the bureau was too focused on investigating Russian interference. The FBI admitted Friday that information about the confessed shooter it received in January failed to reach its Miami field office.
"The president doesn't really think that the FBI failed to stop the Parkland shooter because it was too involved with the Russia investigation, does he?" ABC News' Jonathan Karl asked Sanders. "I think he was speaking, not necessarily that [the Russia investigation] is the cause," Sanders said. "I think we all have to be aware that the cause of this is that of a deranged individual." She added: "That is the responsibility of the shooter, certainly not the responsibility of anybody else."
Karl immediately countered, "Did [the president] mistweet when he said that? Because he's pretty direct, he says, 'This is not acceptable, they're spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion.'" Sanders said Trump was simply "making the point that we would like our FBI agencies to not be focused on something that is clearly a hoax." Watch the exchange below. Kelly O'Meara Morales