'No one would perceive' Trump's CNN tweet 'as a threat,' adviser says

Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert defended Trump's tweet.

ByABC News
July 2, 2017, 11:38 AM

— -- President Trump's homeland security adviser defended the president's tweet Sunday morning showing him body-slamming and punching a person signifying CNN, saying “no one would perceive that as a threat.”

Trump is "the most genuine president and the most nonpolitician president we’ve seen in my lifetime," Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert told ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz on Sunday.

Raddatz asked if the tweet is "the kind of communication you want ... That seems like a threat," she added.

“Certainly not, though I think that no one would perceive that as a threat. I hope they don’t. I do think that [Trump is] beaten up in a way on cable platforms that he has a right to respond to,” Bossert replied.

The tweet included a GIF of a 2007 WWE incident where Trump body-slammed and repeatedly punched WWE Chairman Vince McMahon. The GIF that Trump tweeted superimposed the CNN logo on McMahon’s head.

Bossert, who saw the tweet for the first time live on "This Week," told Raddatz, “There’s a lot of cable new shows that reach directly into hundreds of thousands of viewers and they’re really not all very fair to the president. So I’m pretty proud of the president for developing a Twitter and a social media platform where he can talk directly to the American people.”

The homeland security adviser's defense of the tweet later drew criticism from Ana Navarro, a CNN contributor, on "This Week's" roundtable.

“I am disappointed beyond belief by the answer that the homeland security adviser just gave," Navarro said. "What a wuss. What a wuss. You could see that he is ceding his principles. You are the homeland security adviser and you can’t stand here and say the difference between right and wrong."

Navarro said the president's tweet "is an incitement to violence. He is going to get somebody killed in the media. Maybe that will stop him.”

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