INFLAMMATORY

Trump Aide Retweets Video of Man Using Racial Slurs and Threatening Protesters With Chainsaw

Mercedes Schlapp has since removed the retweets and said she shared the video without having fully watched it.

A senior aide to President Donald Trump promoted a video of a man brandishing a chainsaw at anti-racism protesters and screaming the N-word multiple times on Saturday. The clip, from an incident that occurred in McAllen, Texas on Friday, shows a man who was later arrested shouting racial slurs and wielding a chainsaw at a group of young people demonstrating against police brutality. Mercedes Schlapp, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, retweeted a post praising the man with the chainsaw and then, when asked by Politico about why she did it, retweeted another post of the video but with the racial slurs blurred out. She later deleted both retweets and issued an apology, claiming she had retweeted without watching the video. The day before, Trump said that George Floyd would have been pleased about declining unemployment but later retweeted a video of Glenn Beck and Candace Owens trashing him.