Trump does not blame Schumer for NYC attack, WH says

The White House said Wednesday that President Trump does not blame Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) for Tuesday’s terror attack in New York City, despite the president’s tweets taking aim at the top Democrat.

“Let me be really clear: The president did not blame Sen. Schumer and doesn’t feel that the senator is responsible for the attack,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters.

Sanders said the Trump administration believes “very strongly that the individual who carried out the attack is responsible and no one else.”

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Trump blamed Schumer for backing the diversity visa lottery program that the suspected attacker used to enter the U.S. from Uzbekistan in 2010.

“The terrorist came into our country through what is called the ‘Diversity Visa Lottery Program,’ a Chuck Schumer beauty. I want merit based,” Trump tweeted.

Trump later cited criticism of Schumer made on the television program “Fox and Friends.”

“‘Senator Chuck Schumer helping to import Europes problems’ said Col.Tony Shaffer. We will stop this craziness!  @foxandfriends,” he tweeted.

Schumer co-sponsored bipartisan legislation that led to the enactment of the diversity lottery in 1990. But a sweeping immigration bill he helped author in 2013 would have done away with it.

Despite Trump’s tough criticism of Schumer, Sanders said the president is open to working with him “to pass extreme vetting” measures designed to prevent future attacks.

The spokeswoman pushed back against critics who have accused Trump of hypocrisy for injecting politics into the New York attack when he insisted the public should wait to debate new gun laws after the mass shooting in Las Vegas last month.

“This wasn’t about going the political route,” she said. “It’s something the president has been talking about a long time. It’s not a new policy or new position.”

Jonathan Easley contributed.