White House: Chicago torture case ‘an outrage’
President Obama’s top spokesman called the beating of a mentally disabled man that was broadcast on Facebook Live an “outrage” that shocked people across the country.
“I’ve seen the video in news coverage,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Thursday, adding that the “disturbing images” show a “level of depravity that is an outrage to a lot of Americans.”
Earnest said he had not spoken to Obama about the video from his hometown but said, “I’m confident he would be angered by the images.”
{mosads}Chicago authorities have filed hate-crime charges against four black suspects, who shouted insults about white people and President-elect Donald Trump during the attack.
In the video, which showed a group of people gagging and attacking a disabled suburban Chicago teen, chants of “f— Donald Trump” and “f— white people” could be heard.
Earnest conducted his daily press briefing as the charged were being filed. At the time, he said it was “too early to tell” if hate-crime charges were warranted. He said it was up to local law enforcement officials to make that decision.
Obama is being interviewed Thursday afternoon by a number of Chicago-area television news stations, an opportunity for him to address the incident.
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