White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany backed up President Donald Trump Wednesday for tweeting about a conspiracy that a 75-year old man pushed to the ground by Buffalo police may have been part of a ‘set up’ to make law enforcement look bad.
McEnany doubled down on the president’s comments even as a few Republican senators distanced themselves from the comments and others avoided comment claiming they had not even seen Trump’s tweet.
‘The president was raising questions based on a report that he saw’ when he retweeted a report claiming the man, Martin Gugino, might be an antifa provocateur, McEnany told a panel of interviewers on ‘Fox and Friends.’
‘The president was raising questions based on a report that he saw,’ White House press secretary Keyleigh McEnany said in an interview Wednesday where she defended President Trump’s tweet about a 75-year-old man shoved to the ground by Buffalo police
Trump also claimed based on watching video in the report that Gugino ‘fell harder than was pushed.’ The man is now out of the hospital following the incident, according to his lawyer.
‘They’re questions that need to be asked,’ said McEnany. ‘In every case we can’t jump on one side without looking at all the facts at play. This individual had some very questionable tweets some profanity laden tweets about police officers. Of course no one condones any sort of violence. We need the appropriate amount of force used in any interaction. But there are a lot of questions in that case. In fact, you had 56 police officers who resigned in protest of how their fellow officers were treated.’
She was referencing a tweet Gugino posted the day before he got pushed that said ‘F*** the police.’
McEnany defended the president during an appearance on ‘Fox and Friends’
McEnany doubled down on President Trump’s tweet about the 75-year-old man pushed down by Buffalo police
‘The president was just raising some of those questions,’ she added.
Trump tweeted Tuesday morning: ‘Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN.’
The president added that he agreed with at least part of what was put forward by the broadcast on a network he regularly touts. ‘I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?’ Trump asked.
Martin Gugino, a longtime peace activist from Amherst, had been at a protest at Niagara Square near Buffalo City Hall when he was pushed. He hit his head on the ground causing it to bleed
An elderly man was seen approaching Buffalo police officers in riot gear outside of City Hall on Thursday
The report he referenced was on the One America News Network. The pro-Trump outlet picked the story up from the Conservative Treehouse website, which made the claim based on slowed video footage that Gugino was seeking to scan frequency information from police officers with his phone.
The OANN correspondent identifies himself as Kristian Rouz, who has been revealed to simultaneously be working for Kremlin-backed Sputnik news. The Daily Beast previously reported that Rouz was born in Siberia, graduated from Novosibirsk State University, and moved to the U.S. in 2017.
Her Fox interviewers showed no expression while McEnany defended the president’s tweet.
Co-host Brian Kilmeade asked: ‘Kayleigh what about the timing of it in the middle of the George Floyd ceremonies,’ referencing the last of several events to commemorate the man who died during arrest by Minneapolis police. It got wall-to-wall television coverage Tuesday amid the uproar over Trump’s tweet.
‘Look the president has acknowledged so many times and rightfully so the injustice with George Floyd,’ she said. She continued that Trump was ‘raising some questions – some legitimate ones – about that particular interaction, and it’s his prerogative to do so.’
Gugino texted USA Today after being asked about Trump’s tweet. ‘No comment other than Black lives matter. Just out of the ICU. Should recover eventually. Thx,’ he wrote.
His attorney blasted the ‘dangerous’ and ‘untrue’ accusations against him.
Kelly Zarcone, attorney for Gugino told TMZ that President Trump is wrong to draw links between her client and the radical left group, adding that Mr Gugino had been seriously injured.
Zarcone said: ‘Martin is out of ICU but still hospitalized and truly needs to rest. Martin has always been a peaceful protester because he cares about today’s society.’
She added: ‘[Mr Gugino] is also a typical Western New Yorker who loves his family. No one from law enforcement has even suggested anything otherwise, so we are at a loss to understand why the President of the United States would make such dark, dangerous, and untrue accusations against him.’
Zarcone told CNN Tuesday: ‘No one from law enforcement has ever even suggested anything otherwise so we’re at a loss to understand why the president of the United States would make such a dark, dangerous and untrue accusation against him. Martin has always been a peaceful protester because he cares about today’s society.’
Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, a Republican party leader in the Senate, said Tuesday after Trump’s tweet: ‘Its a serious accusation, which should only be made with facts and evidence. And I haven´t seen any yet.’
Martin Gugino’s history of peaceful activism
Martin Gugino, the 75-year-old man who got pushed to the ground by Buffalo police and who Trump accused of possibly being in on a ‘set up’ has a long history of activism for a range of causes.
The resident of Amherst in upstate New York outside Buffalo has been involved with the Western New York Peace Center.
‘He’s a gentle person who really believes that he must stand up for what he thinks is right,’ his friend Terrence Bisson told the Buffalo News.
He has advocated for closing the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, climate change, and other issues. He has protested the treatment of child immigrants at the southern border.
Martin Gugino pictured with actor Ed Asner
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown called him an ‘agitator’ and President Donald Trump claimed after watching a video where Buffalo police shoved him that Gugino ‘fell harder than was pushed.’
Trump tweeted that Gugino ‘could be an ANTIFA provocateur’ but did not provide evidence of a connection to the loosely-defined left-wing group.
‘He’s the last person you would want to push down. He’s the kind of person who you would want to speak up,’ said Bisson.
‘He’d never shout or oppose someone. He would ask questions if he thought something was not right,’ Bisson told WKBW.
The day before he got pushed by police, he posted a tweet that said ‘F*** the police.’
On June 4, he tweeted: ‘Protests are exempt from curfews because Congress (and mayors) may make no laws that abridge the right of the people peaceably to assemble and complain to the government. The government should receive the complaint with thanks, not arrest the people or beat them.’
He has been photographed holding signs dealing with detention of immigrants and Guantanamo.