The White House said Thursday that President Donald Trump did not know about the background of Jayda Fransen, the far-right ‘Britain First’ official, when he retweeted three inflammatory videos about Muslims.
‘No I don’t believe so,’ said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, when asked Thursday whether the president knew about Fransen, who has been convicted of religiously aggravated harassment in Britain.
‘I think he knew what the issues are,’ said Sanders.
‘But I think he knew what the real issues are and that is that we have a real threat of extreme violence and terrorism, not just in this country but across the globe,’ she said.
President Donald Trump did not know about the background of Jayda Fransen, the far-right ‘Britain First’ official, when he retweeted inflammatory videos
But I think he knew what the real issues are and that is that we have a real threat of extreme violence and terrorism, not just in this country but across the globe.
‘That was the point he was making,’ Sanders said.
The far-right leader at the centre of a major diplomatic spat between Britain and the U.S., and added fuel to the fire by calling on Trump to save her from jail.
British Prime Minister Teresa May said Trump was ‘wrong’ to share inflamitory videos to his millions of followers
British ambassador to Washington Kim Darroch tweeted that he raised concerns with the White House.
‘British people overwhelmingly reject the prejudiced rhetoric of the far right, which seek to divide communities & erode decency, tolerance & respect. British Muslims are peaceful and law abiding citizens. And I raised these concerns with the White House yesterday,’ the ambassador tweeted.
‘But I think he knew what the real issues are and that is that we have a real threat of extreme violence and terrorism, not just in this country but across the globe,’ said Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Sanders defended Trump’s tweets as advancing public dialogue. ‘The president feels that bringing up important issues of our time, like extreme violence and terrorism, are important to do,’ she said.
The first clip he shared depicted a ‘Muslim migrant’ beating up a ‘Dutch boy on crutches’.
But Dutch media this afternoon said the video was ‘fake news’. The video features a born and raised Dutch man and no reports have detailed the suspect’s religion.
Trump also retweeted a video of a Muslim man ‘destroy(ing) a statue of Virgin Mary’, and another where Ms Fransen wrote: ‘Islamist mob pushed teenage boy off roof and beats him to death!’ The provenance of the footage is unknown.
Jayda Fransen was the little-known deputy leader of the ‘Britain First’ group until inflammatory messages she posted online were picked up by the US President and re-posted to his followers around the world.
Fransen, 31, is currently facing prosecution in Great Britain for religiously aggravated harassment and a separate trial for using threatening and abusive language.
But – taking advantage of her new-found notoriety – she made a video appeal to Trump last night, calling on him to intervene in the cases and help her.
She posted the video online yesterday evening, after Trump’s tweets the previous night had sparked international anger and a confrontation between the President and Prime Minister Theresa May.
Britain First’s Jayda Fransen has used her new-found notoriety following Donald Trump’s retweeting of her messages to call on the President to intervene in her prosecution in the UK
The Presidents’ actions spiralled into an international issue when he was criticised by British PM Theresa May for his retweets, and shot back that she should concentrate on tackling terror
Donald Trump is pictured today at the White House, hours after his Twitter spat with Mrs May
Mr Trump meets with Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa in the Oval Office of the White House today
Peering out from between two pot plants, Fransen starts the online plea by thanking the President for retweeting her messages and telling him she is ‘delighted’ with the publicity.
She said: ‘On behalf of myself and every citizen of Britain and for every man and women who has fought and died for us to have freedom of speech, I am appealing to you for your help.
‘I’m appealing for your intervention before I am thrown in jail.’
The first video President Trump posted depicted ‘Muslim migrant’ according to Jayda Fransen, beating up a ‘Dutch boy on crutches’
Fransen, and Britain First leader Paul Golding, 35, are due to go on trial next month over allegations of religiously aggravated abuse in Canterbury and Ramsgate, Kent.
She will also appear in court in Northern Ireland in December charged with using threatening and abusive language in connection with a speech she made at an anti-terrorism demonstration in Belfast on August 6.
Her group, who often march through British towns wearing pseudo-military clothing and waving flags, have been widely accused of inciting racial hatred and sowing division.
Fransen’s anti-Muslim posts were retweeted by Mr Trump although it has since emerged that the attacker in this video is neither a Muslim nor a migrant
Britain First have been widely accused of racism and of stoking up racial hatred
Despite it being unclear whether the President knew who she was when he retweeted her messages, his actions have been taken as an endorsement which has angered many in the UK.
Fransen has previously been convicted of religiously aggravated harassment after she accosted a Muslim woman in Luton.
The charge stemmed from a January 2016 incident in which Fransen, wearing a political uniform and during a so-called ‘Christian patrol,’ confronted her victim, Sumayyah Sharpe, and her children during a political rally.
Ms Fransen later admitted that she told Sharpe, who was wearing hijab, that Muslim men force women to cover up to avoid rape ‘because they cannot control their sexual urges.’
Since that conviction, she and her group have continued to post incendiary messages online, which, until yesterday, went largely ignored.
But, in a flurry of social media posts on Wednesday morning, Mr Trump retweeted three of her posts to his 43.6million followers, including footage from the Netherlands purporting to show a Muslim migrant attacking a man on crutches.
Fransen said she is ‘delighted’ that the President had retweeted her messages to his followers
The retweets were made without comment, but were regarded by many in the UK as an effective support of the far-right group.
After Theresa May condemned the tweets, Trump then targeted her with an online message, telling her to concentrate on tackling extremism.
In her first personal response to the furore today, Mrs May said that the UK and US worked closely together in the fight against terrorism.
And she added: ‘The fact that we work together does not mean that we are afraid to say when we think that the United States have got it wrong and to be very clear with them.
‘I am very clear that retweeting from Britain First was the wrong thing to do.’
‘That’s why they are coming into my country raping women across the continent’: Jayda Fransen’s vile abuse hurled at a hijab-wearing mother in front of her four children
Jayda Fransen the deputy leader of Britain First an extremist political party
The deputy leader of far-right group Britain First was found guilty of religiously aggravated harassment after hurling abuse at a Muslim woman wearing a hijab in front of her four young children.
Jayda Fransen, 30, was fined nearly £2,000 at Luton and South Bedfordshire Magistrates’ Court for wearing a political uniform and shouting at Sumayyah Sharpe during a so-called Christian Patrol of Bury Park in Luton on Saturday January 23, 2016.
Fransen admitted telling Ms Sharpe that Muslim men force women to cover up to avoid being raped ‘because they cannot control their sexual urges’, adding ‘that’s why they are coming into my country raping women across the continent’.
But she denied the words were intended to be offensive.
‘The reason I said them was because from everything I have studied, I understand them to be true,’ Fransen said in her defence.
Around 20 Britain First members took part in the ‘patrol’ of Bury Park, distributing branded newspapers which had a front page reading ‘World War Three has begun – Islam against the world’, the court heard.
Ms Sharpe, who was shopping with her four young children at the time, refused a newspaper from the group.
Giving evidence, she said it was at this point that Fransen, from South Norwood, south London, crossed the road and confronted her.
The incident was captured on camera by members of Britain First.
Ms Sharpe told the court: ‘She came across, shouting at me, saying ‘Why are you covered?’, and she said that quite a few times. I told her it was my choice that I cover.
‘I then turned to the camera and I said, ‘Film me, I’m British, I’m a British Muslim. It’s my choice to wear this clothing and it’s my right’.’
She added: ‘I called her a slapper, I admit, and I told her to piss off because I was so angry at that point that she had done that in front of my children.’
In video footage shown to court, Fransen was seen brandishing a white cross as she told Ms Sharpe that Muslim men made women cover themselves so that they were not raped.
Following the incident, Ms Sharpe said she had to go home and explain the meaning of the word rape to her young children.
She also told the court her four-year-old son was now scared to leave the house in case they ran into the group.
District Judge Mellanby described Fransen’s behaviour as ‘shocking’ and commended Ms Sharpe for the ‘eloquent’ account of events she had provided to the court.
Footage of the incident with Ms Sharpe was edited and included in a video which was posted on the party’s YouTube channel.
Paul Golding (right) and Jayda Fransen (left), leaders of the far-right organisation Britain First talk during a march in central London on April 1, 2017
District Judge Mellanby said she was aware that as a result, Ms Sharpe had been branded a ‘terrorist’ on some websites.
Fransen, who was elected deputy leader of Britain First in autumn 2014, was also found guilty of wearing a political uniform in a public place.
The deputy leader was dressed in a green coat with a Britain First lapel and black beanie hat bearing the party’s emblem during the patrol, which District Judge Mellanby ruled was ‘similar attire’ to the rest of the group and signified her association to the party.
Fransen was fined £1,000 for the religiously aggravated harassment and £200 for wearing a political uniform.
She was also ordered to pay £620 in costs – as well as a £100 surcharge – and issued with a two-year restraining order to prevent her from contacting Ms Sharpe or engaging in intimidating behaviour towards her.
A further charge of failure to surrender to police bail was withdrawn by the prosecution.
Following the hearing, a Britain First supporter was arrested on suspicion of common assault after an alleged altercation with a journalist.
‘I’m not afraid to say he was wrong’: May REFUSES to back down in spat with Trump over his far-right retweets and hints State Visit is ON ICE
Theresa May hit back at Donald Trump’s jibe that she is not tackling terrorism today as an extraordinary spat threatened to blow the Special Relationship apart.
The Prime Minister risked fuelling the row by repeating her view that the US president was ‘wrong’ to retweet anti-Muslim videos posted by a far-right group.
Despite Mr Trump lashing out at her last night demanding she focus on ‘Islamic terrorism taking place in the UK’, Mrs May said she would not be afraid to raise concerns about such interventions.
Theresa May faced questions about the spat with Donald Trump after she gave a speech in Jordan today (pictured)
Mrs May slammed Donald Trump (pictured earlier this month) yesterday after he retweeted anti-Muslim videos posted by the leader of the far right Britain First
Mr Trump has fired back at the PM by saying she should concentrate on ‘Radical Islamic Terrorism taking place in the UK’ and not his Twitter activity. Twitter users were also quick to point out that the president had tagged the wrong Theresa in his message
She also did little to quell speculation that the state visit has now being kicked into the long grass, stressing that no date has been set.
Questioned by journalists during a visit to Jordan this afternoon, Mrs May said: ‘The fact that we work together does not mean we are afraid to say when we think the United States has got it wrong and to be very clear with them.
‘And I am very clear that retweeting from Britain First was the wrong thing to do.’
As the row escalated, the UK’s ambassador to Washington, Sir Kim Darroch, lodged a formal protest with the White House over the retweets.
In an excoriating verdict on Britain First today, Mrs May branded it a ‘hateful organisation’.
‘It seeks to spread division and mistrust among our communities. It stands in fundamental opposition to the values we share as a nation – values of respect, tolerance and common British decency,’ she said.
Mrs May was in Jordan today as part of her tour of the Middle East, which saw her visit Iraq yesterday. She was the first British PM to go to the country for nine years
He posted the same message a few moments later with the correct Twitter handle. For a few minutes he left the original tweet up
Asked whether she regarded Mr Trump as a fit person to be hosted by the Queen on a state visit, the Prime Minister said only: ‘An invitation for a state visit has been extended and has been accepted. We have yet to set a date.’
But she made clear that she wanted to maintain the UK’s close relations with the US, regardless of Mr Trump’s actions.
‘This is a long-term special relationship that we have,’ said Mrs May.
‘It is an enduring relationship that is there because it is in both our national interests for that relationship to be there.
‘As Prime Minister, I am clear that that relationship with the United States should continue. I think it is in the interests both of the United Kingdom and the United States and of the wider world.’
Mr Trump’s actions drew cold fury from across the political spectrum in the UK, with fresh calls for his invite to the UK – extended by Mrs May on behalf of the Queen in Washington in January – to be withdrawn.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Britain First is ‘divisive and hateful’ as he joined those condemning the President’s tweet on the social media site
The Local Government Secretary Sajid Javid was among the first of a string of cabinet ministers to condemn Donald Trump’s post as ‘wrong’
The Mayor of London renewed his call to cancel the President’s planned state visit to Britain following his latest Twitter outburst
Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said the comments will be seen as a ‘betrayal’ of the special relationship and called for his visit to be cancelled.
Cabinet ministers also joined the condemnation. Home Secretary Amber Rudd appeared to hint that the state visit will not be happening any time soon, stressing that ‘arrangements have yet to be made’. She also suggested Mr Trump should give up Twitter.
‘On the issue of radical Islamism, British Muslims are peaceful and law-abiding who have themselves been victims of acts of terror by the far right. There are those who conduct acts of terror in the name of Islam, but it is not in the name of Islam.
‘As Prime Minister, I am very clear about the priority that I give to dealing with the challenge of the threat of terrorism … and extremism from whatever source they come.’
The UK’s ambassador to Washington, Sir Kim Darroch, said: ‘British people overwhelmingly reject the prejudiced rhetoric of the far right, which seek to divide communities and erode decency, tolerance and respect.
‘British Muslims are peaceful and law abiding citizens. And I raised these concerns with the White House yesterday.’
Mother who was mistaken for Theresa May in a tweet by US President says she ‘was asleep for the whole thing’
A Theresa May with just six followers on Twitter inadvertently tweeted by Donald Trump as he tried to blast the Prime Minister over terrorism helpfully told the president today: ‘She runs the country – I’m a mum from Bognor.’
Mr Trump blasted Mrs May over her criticism of his decision to share anti-Muslim videos posted online by far-right group Britain First.
But instead of sending his message to Downing Street he initially sent it to a Theresa May Scrivener who lives in a flat in Bognor near its seafront.
She said: ‘It’s amazing to think that the world’s most powerful man managed to press the wrong button’.
A Theresa May from Bognor Regis (pictured with her partner Steve) inadvertently found herself at the centre of a political row between Donald Trump and the Prime Minister last night
Spot the difference: One Theresa is a mother from the south coast – the other is the Prime Minister
The wrong Theresa is 41, has only tweeted nine times since 2009.
Speaking exclusively to the Press Association, Miss Scrivener said she was asleep when the US President tweeted her by accident at midnight.
She said: ‘I was in bed by half 10 last night and oblivious to it all. I’m just waiting for a call from the White House with an apology.’
Miss Scrivener has received ‘huge numbers’ of messages but said: ‘If I wanted to be famous I would have gone on X Factor.’
Donald Trump fired back at Theresa May by saying she should concentrate on ‘Radical Islamic Terrorism taking place in the UK’ – but sent it to the wrong Theresa