Africa ( Europe Brief News): The White House dismissed a reporter’s challenge over Trump’s claims on White South African farmers, defending a video allegedly depicting burial sites.
In the Oval Office, Trump presented a video of white crosses that he claimed were the graves of about 1,000 white Afrikaner South African farmers when he was entertaining South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. According to Trump, these farmers are being evicted from their land.
However, in light of rumors that the crosses were from a memorial demonstration after the murder of a White farmer couple rather than genuine burial sites, NBC News’ Yamiche Alcindor questioned White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt about the video’s veracity.
“We know that that was not true and that the video wasn’t true,”
Alcindor said during the White House press briefing on Thursday.
Leavitt and Alcindor sparred and talked over one another, with Alcindor asking “what protocols are in place when there’s unsubstantiated information being put out for the world and world leaders?”
Then, asserting that the footage was not unsupported, Leavitt intervened and broke up the conversation.
“What’s unsubstantiated about the video?” Leavitt said.
“The video shows crosses that represent the dead bodies of people who were racially persecuted by their government. In fact, the Associated Press, of all places, has a picture of that very monument in the caption from the Associated Press is ‘Each cross marks a white farmer who has been killed in a farm murder.’”
“So it is substantiated. But it’s not just by that video and the physical evidence that everybody saw on display in the Oval Office, but also by another outlet in this from the Associated Press,”
Leavitt said.
“So you should take it up with them if you believe the claim is unsubstantiated. And that’s a ridiculous line of questioning.”
The Associated Press, citing local news reports from South Africa, stated that the crosses were part of a protest that took place following the death of a white farming couple in 2020.
At the White House, Trump informed Ramaphosa that people come to the roadside graveyards to “pay respects to their family member who was killed.”
“Have they told you where that is, Mr. President? I’d like to know where that is. Because this is something I’ve never seen,”
Ramaphosa said.
“I mean, it’s in South Africa, that’s where,”
Trump said.
“We need to find out,” Ramaphosa said.
What evidence did the White House provide to support Trump’s claims?
Crosses that Trump said indicated the graves of white farmers slaughtered in South Africa were depicted in a video played during the Oval Office meeting. According to a photo caption from the Associated Press, the crosses are used to identify white farmers who have been murdered on farms, according to the White House Press Secretary.
Trump’s aides often shared the printed documents and articles he displayed during the meeting online to support the claim that white farmers are being persecuted.
These statements, however, have been shown to be false or unsupported by fact-checking and investigations conducted by numerous news organizations and independent sources.
The assertion that the film depicted grave sites was refuted by the fact that the crosses were from a memorial demonstration rather than actual graves.
