Karoline Leavitt Hits Back Fiercely After Press Questions on 'White Genocide' Claims in South Africa

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt clashed with an NBC News reporter regarding whether a video shown Donald Trump in the Oval Office during a meeting with South Africa ’s president contained evidence of a “ genocide Hostilities towards white individuals are occurring in South Africa.

In Thursday's press conference, NBC News correspondent Yamiche Alcindor highlighted to Leavitt that a video was shown where Trump compelled South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to watch during their meeting did not, as the president claimed, Display a "burial" location for South African farmers, yet illustrate white crosses intended to symbolize murdered farmers.

Alcindor tried to explain that the numerous crosses showcased in the video presented at the White House were meant to commemorate a single murdered couple and did not reflect an actual count of fatalities. However, Leavitt was not convinced by this argument.

"It hasn’t been proven that this is true," Alcindor said to Leavitt.

No, what's accurate," Leavitt stated, appearing briefly bewildered as he dismissed the reporter’s suggestion, "is that the footage displayed images of crosses in South Africa where white farmers were reportedly murdered and faced political persecution due to the color of their skin.

"Those crosses symbolize their lives and the reality that they have passed away, with the government failing to take action," an angered Leavitt stated, speaking over Alcindor.

In 2024, South African police and Afrikaner groups reported eight killings of white farmers in South Africa. compiled by Reuters. The deaths accounted for less than 1 percent of all murders in the country last year.

On Wednesday, Trump welcomed South Africa’s leader to the Oval Office aiming to "reset" foreign relationships, yet the discussion swiftly veered off course. The U.S. President requested the room lighting be reduced before playing videos he claimed depicted ethnic cleansing occurring in South Africa. He asserted that more than 1,000 white farmers were killed and suggested a genocide was underway. However, no credible global bodies specializing in monitoring ethnic disputes and genocides corroborate his claims.

"Take a look; these burial sites are everywhere. They're for all the white farmers who have been laid to rest," Trump said to Ramaphosa, referring to the crosses mentioned by Leavitt earlier that week.

Every single one of those white objects you can observe represents a cross, with around 1,000 present. These crosses symbolize families of white farmers," stated the U.S. president. "This scene is truly horrifying. I have not witnessed anything comparable before.

A representative from the White House subsequently maintained to The Independent There is substantial proof of the oppression faced by white farmers in South Africa, according to what supporters claim is the strongest evidence: testimonies from roughly several dozen white South African individuals who were invited to the U.S. under the refugee initiative during the Trump administration.

South Africa’s president repeatedly pressed his US counterpart to admit that white people were not persecuted in his country, pointing to three white members of his delegation, including golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen: "If there was a genocide, these three gentlemen would not be here.”

Critics within South Africa, a nation predominantly inhabited by Black people who were previously governed under a racially discriminatory apartheid system treating Black South Africans as inferior, suggest that Afrikaner entities promoting the notion of a "white genocide" are actually motivated by their own racial agendas. This viewpoint was highlighted in a judicial ruling. ruled in February that the Boerelegioen group was promoting these ideas with the aim to disseminate their own "messages of racial hate and segregation."

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