President Trump Explains 'Sweden Incident' in Tweet
President Donald Trump returns to Washington, Monday, after spending the weekend at his private club in Florida. His time away, however, had little to do with escaping work.
The commander in chief spent his time in the Sunshine State rallying supporters, interviewing contenders for national security advisor and in meetings about replacing Obamacare.
"We are going to be submitting, in a couple of weeks, a great health care plan that's going to take the place of the disaster known as Obamacare. It will be repealed and replaced," Trump told supporters.
Both the president and first lady came under fire after their rally Saturday.
Some on the Left criticized Melania Trump for opening the event with the Lord's prayer.
"Melania starts the dictatorship rally with the Lord's Prayer? NOT EVERY AMERICAN IS CHRISTIAN!!!! Country over party," one person tweeted.
Meanwhile, President Trump caused a stir after referring to an "incident" in Sweden.
"You look at what's happening in Germany; you look at what's happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this," Trump said at the rally.
The former prime minister tweeted a response to the claims.
Sweden? Terror attack? What has he been smoking? Questions abound. https://t.co/XWgw8Fz7tj
— Carl Bildt (@carlbildt) February 19, 2017
Trump explained his comment in a tweet of his own.
My statement as to what's happening in Sweden was in reference to a story that was broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immigrants & Sweden.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2017
The Fox News story that Trump referred to was from "Tucker Carlson Tonight."
Carlson spoke with a documentary filmmaker about a surge in violent crime in Sweden that some have traced to an increase in refugees.
During the rally Trump also took a moment to criticize the mainstream media.
"Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln and many of our greatest presidents fought with the media and called them out often times on their lies. When the media lies to people I will never ever let them get away with it. I will do whatever I can that they don't get away with it. They have their own agenda and their agenda is not your agenda," Trump told the crowd.
He also took on the media with a tweet that got a lot of attention.
The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017
Those comments, of course, set off a firestorm.
Sen. John McCain, said, "If you want to preserve -- I'm very serious now -- if you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press. And without it, I'm afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That's how dictators get started."
Buth South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime friend of McCain, says the media has indeed gone too far in its coverage of the president.
"The bottom line here is America's not becoming a dictatorship," the Republican lawmaker told CBS News. Still, he added, "Sen. McCain was right to say that we, as politicians, need to understand the role of the press and jealously guard it."
"I would say this to the American press corp - when it comes to President Trump, you're over the top," Graham continued. "You're acting more like an opposition party. Every president's had problems with the press; you need to do your job."
"But from a Republican point of view, I think the coverage of President Trump has been almost to the point of hysterical," he said. "And y'all need to do some self-evaluation in my view."