Donald Trump’s former White House communications director scolded the president on Thursday for straying from a “unifying message” in his Oval Office address following the killing of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
Mike Dubke, who served under Trump in his first term, told CNN that it’s “most disheartening” to hear the president’s remarks given that they took place just hours after the assassination in Utah.
“Then there was the turn toward the negativity, the heated rhetoric of Democrats, the reference to Republicans as being Nazis and all of that. As a communicator, stop after the two-and-a-half minutes,” Dubke advised.
“Because I think one of the — maybe I’m old school in this — but one of the powers of the Oval Office is, in times of strife, to try to unify the country, and I think that is still an important role for the president.”
Trump — in a video clip shared by the White House on Wednesday — described Kirk as a “martyr for truth and freedom” and spoke of his Christian faith before turning to talk of “radical left political violence,” claiming that it’s “directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today.”
