Trump's social media summit was a circus. Its aftermath was even worse.
The extent to which President Donald Trump has emboldened and empowered fringe views wasn’t just on full view Thursday during a White House social media summit that featured many far-right conspiracy theorists and hoaxers — it was perfectly captured by the conduct of one attendee.
The day before the summit, former White House aide Sebastian Gorka was widely ridiculed for making an absurd claim on his radio show that the US women’s national soccer team was seeking “to destroy everything that is wholesome in our country and in our Judeo-Christian civilization.” But on Thursday, Gorka — back in the White House as an invited guest — was praised for doing a “good job” by the president before going on to verbally harass a member of the White House press corps.
Trump ended his speech at the summit — one that largely centered on a baseless conspiracy theory about Twitter conspiring to suppress his follower count — by taking a question from and praising Gorka, who despite working at the White House in the early days of the Trump administration introduced himself as though the president didn’t know who he was. In a less amusing twist, Gorka followed that up by nearly instigating a physical altercation on White House grounds with a member of the White House press corps.
Gorka and other far-right media personalities were given choice seats for Trump’s brief Rose Garden event in which he announced he’s giving up his quest to add a citizenship question to the census but will try to gather citizenship information by other means. Right after it ended, Gorka strode up to Playboy reporter Brian Karem, a fixture of the White House press corps who at times has been an outspoken critic of the Trump administration, and called him a “punk.”
“You’re not a journalist — you’re a punk!” Gorka yelled.
“And for the record, he would kick your punk ass,” another summit attendee said to Karem, as others chanted “Gor-ka! Gor-ka!”
https://www.vox.com/2019/7/12/20691529/trump-social-media-summit-gorka-karem
Take your punk ass back to Hungary Gorka.
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