During Monday’s White House press briefing, Press Secretary Josh Earnest declined to come to Hillary Clinton’s aid in reference to the recent statement she made about Donald Trump’s supporters.
WATCH:
Earnest stated that President Obama still intends to hit the campaign trail for his former secretary of state, but “doesn’t” feel the need to join Clinton in apologizing for her “basket of deplorables” comment.”
“I think you can look forward to the president making a strong, affirmative case of why she believes she will make an excellent president of the United States and why he is forcefully supporting her campaign,” he explained.
“I’ll leave it to [Clinton] to make decisions about the most effective way to run their campaign,” Earnest added. “The president’s going to be in a mode tomorrow where he’s enthusiastically advocating for her election.”
A reporter then posed to Earnest, “but if [Clinton’s campaign] is expressing regret for either using the phrase of quantifying it, does the president share that regret?”
Earnest closed by noting “it’s not the president’s phrase.”
“So again, she can describe the situation however she would like.”