White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Friday condemned a production of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” being performed in New York’s Central Park depicting the assassination of President Donald Trump.
Spicer called the play, which shows Caesar as resembling the president and being stabbed to death, “troubling.”
He said he didn’t know if the president was aware of the play but noted that the president and the first lady had previously spoken out against violence being depicted against him before when comedian Kathy Griffin participated in a photo shoot holding what looked like Trump’s bloody, severed head.
Spicer also called actor Johnny Depp’s comments “troubling” as well. The actor on Friday asked a crowd at the Glastonbury Festival when was the last time an actor assassinated a president.
Spicer said he condemned “all acts of violence” and said he found the lack of outrage over violence depicted towards the president a “little troubling.”
“The President has made it clear that we should denounce violence in all of its forms. And I think that if we’re going to hold to that standard, then we should all agree that that standard should be universally called out,” Spicer said.
“I don’t think that we should be resorting to that kind of language with respect to anybody in our country,” he added:
And so when those actions are depicted — and I think we saw a couple folks in the media and some other places tweet out their support for that show — I’m not sure that that’s a smart thing to do. We either all agree that violence should be called out and denounced, or not. And I think that it’s concerning when you see a pattern that these comments get made, these actions get depicted, and the lack of attention that they get when it’s on our side.
Spicer’s statements came in response to a question at the White House briefing, which was off-camera.
The condemnation comes just weeks after a 66-year-old Illinois man, James T. Hodgkinson, opened fire on Republican congressmen and staffers practicing for a charity baseball game in Alexandria, Virginia.
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) and former staffer Matt Mika were critically injured, and two Capitol Police officers and staffer Zack Barth were also wounded.
Since the shooting, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have lamented the acrimonious tone in politics today and called for more civility.
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