White House: Trump's Tweet About Leaving UCLA Players 'In Jail' Was A Rhetorical Response
- 7 years ago
During a White House press briefing on Monday, Sarah Huckabee Sanders addressed President Trump's tweet about leaving UCLA players "in jail."
President Trump, apparently aggravated over the lack of credit he'd been given for freeing the three UCLA players from China, tweeted on Sunday that he wished he'd left them in jail.
When it was pointed out during Monday's press briefing that the players had voiced appreciation and asked what more Trump would have liked to hear, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders clarified that the tweet was, "less about the players than the father of one of the Americans…frankly, it didn't seem like the father wanted the president to intervene."
Regarding Trump's statement about leaving the players as they were, Sanders commented, "it was a rhetorical response to the criticism by the father," noting that the president, "was happy to see the release of these individuals."
The Trump tweet in question read, "Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal. I should have left them in jail!"
The tweet followed the response Ball gave when asked about Trump's involvement in his son's release.
As part of a larger effort to downplay his son's alleged actions, Ball told ESPN, in part, "Who? What was he over there for? Don't tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out."
LiAngelo Ball and his two teammates were detained on accusations regarding thefts at a number of high-end stores in China.
Trump, while in Beijing, made an apparently successful case for their release back to the U.S. and was publicly thanked by the players involved.
President Trump, apparently aggravated over the lack of credit he'd been given for freeing the three UCLA players from China, tweeted on Sunday that he wished he'd left them in jail.
When it was pointed out during Monday's press briefing that the players had voiced appreciation and asked what more Trump would have liked to hear, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders clarified that the tweet was, "less about the players than the father of one of the Americans…frankly, it didn't seem like the father wanted the president to intervene."
Regarding Trump's statement about leaving the players as they were, Sanders commented, "it was a rhetorical response to the criticism by the father," noting that the president, "was happy to see the release of these individuals."
The Trump tweet in question read, "Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal. I should have left them in jail!"
The tweet followed the response Ball gave when asked about Trump's involvement in his son's release.
As part of a larger effort to downplay his son's alleged actions, Ball told ESPN, in part, "Who? What was he over there for? Don't tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out."
LiAngelo Ball and his two teammates were detained on accusations regarding thefts at a number of high-end stores in China.
Trump, while in Beijing, made an apparently successful case for their release back to the U.S. and was publicly thanked by the players involved.