White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt scolded a reporter Thursday for questioning her on President Donald Trump's false claim about "burial sites" for white South African farmers, during his meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office.
"The president showed a video that he said showed more than 1,000 burial sites of white South Africans that he said were murdered," NBC News' Yamiche Alcindor said.
"We know that that was not true and that the video wasn't showing that," Alcindor continued. "So, I wonder, why did the president choose to show that?"
During the Oval Office meeting with the Ramaphosa on Wednesday, Trump showed a video that claimed white people were being persecuted in the country, and he reiterated his claim that a "genocide" was taking place against white people in South Africa. While it's true that there is violent crime in South Africa, the fraction of murders against white farmers is less than 1%, and many experts say that the deaths do not satisfy the definition of genocide.
One scene in the video was a shot of many roadside white crosses that Trump claimed were burial sites for more than a thousand slain white Afrikaners. However, the crosses in the unauthenticated video were for a "temporary memorial," not a burial site, the organizer told the BBC.
"What's not true, Yamiche?" Leavitt responded.
"It's not true that the video was showing a burial site," Alcindor added. "It is unsubstantiated that that's the case."
"The video showed images of crosses in South Africa about white farmers who have been killed and politically persecuted because of the color of their skin," Leavitt responded, not directly addressing the president's claims about the image being a burial site. "And those crosses are representing their lives."
After a back and forth between Leavitt and Alcindor, the press secretary said, "That's a ridiculous line of questioning."
