White House: Obama Not Backing Down From Using The Word ‘Thugs’ to Describe Looters

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest is defending President Obama’s use of the words “thugs” and “criminals” to describe looters in Baltimore.

“No, I don’t think that the president would revise in any way the remarks he shared with all of you in the Rose Garden,” Earnest said, when asked if Obama refrained from using the term in a subsequent interview.

Earnest noted that the press highlighted the actions of a “small minority” of looters and arsonists in the city of Baltimore calling their actions, “nothing short of criminal.”

“Those were thuggish acts,” Earnest added.