Last week, a white supremacist was captured after targeting and murdering an African-American man. After being asked about the incident, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer grew visibly frustrated.

Spicer on hate crime

In New York City last week, 28-year-old James Jackson of Baltimore traveled to the Big Apple and killed 77-year-old African-American Timothy Caughman. Jackson says he regrets committing the crime, because he would've rather have taken the life of a "young thug" or a "successful older black man," instead of an senior citizen. Jackson made it clear that he came to the city to commit the hate crime, which resulted in yet another incident of racial violence in recent months.

During a March 27 press briefing at the White House, Sean Spicer was pressed on the issue, but did his best to deflect.

After being asked about the aforementioned hate crime, Sean Spicer attempted to shift the conversation into a different direction. Spicer first scolded the African-American reporter for shouting the question to Attorney General Jeff Sessions earlier in the briefing, before then accusing the media of too often jumping to conclusions when it comes to hate crimes.

“I do think there has been a rush to judgement in a lot of other cases, in particular when it comes to some of the anti-Semitic discussion," Sean Spicer said.

"People have jumped to the conclusion about denouncing people on the right, and in that particular case, we saw that the president was right, and that this rush to judgement by a lot of folks on the left was wrong," Spicer went on to say, before adding, "none of them have been held to account on that." The press secretary also defended Donald Trump on the issue, who, while not commenting on the particular incident, has gone on the record to condemn hate crimes in general.

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Since the election of Donald Trump last November, hate crimes have reportedly been on the rise across the United States as the political divide in the country continues to widen. Despite this, the White House has not offered more then a vague condemnation of crimes targeting individuals based on race, gender, or ethnic background.
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