‘Are You a Stupid Person?’ Trump Rages at Journalist While Discussing Afghan Evacuee Who Shot National Guardsmen

President Donald Trump snapped at a reporter on Thursday, shouting “Are you a stupid person?” as he defended his view on the vetting of the suspect. The outburst comes after weeks in which he has publicly attacked female reporters.

The exchange took place during a press conference about the shooting of two National Guardsmen in Washington D C, an attack officials say was carried out by a suspected Afghan national and authorities are investigating.

A reporter asked about vetting. “U.S. officials say that the suspect worked very closely with the CIA in Afghanistan for years, that he was vetted and the vetting came up clean.” The question focused the event on how the suspect entered the country.

Trump pushed back. “He went cuckoo. I mean, he went nuts,” responded Trump. “It happens too often with these people. You see them. But look, this is how they come in, they’re standing on top of each other. That’s an airplane. There was no vetting or anything. They came in unvetted and we have a lot of others in this country and we’re going to get them out.” His tone was sharp and his words were aimed at the wider policy around evacuations.

The reporter pressed on. “Actually, your DOJ IG just reported this year that there was thorough vetting by DHS and by the FBI of these Afghans who were brought into the U.S., so why do you blame the Biden administration for what this man did?” she asked.

Trump answered plainly. “Because they let them in. Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person?” He then spoke at length about the evacuation and laws he said made it hard to remove people. Some listeners winced.

“And there’s a law passed that it’s almost impossible to get them out. You can’t get them out once they come in, and they came in and they were unvetted, they were unchecked, there were many of them, and they came in on big planes and it was disgraceful. And if you look, you’ll see there was a law passed that makes it almost impossible not to let them in, not to certify them, so to speak, once they come in, and they came in and they shouldn’t have come in, and frankly the whole thing was a mess. The whole Afghanistan situation was a mess. It should’ve never taken place. If we’re going to go out, and we would’ve gone out because I had everybody ready to go, we were gonna go out with strength and dignity and precision, and we would’ve left from Bagram, and we would’ve kept Bagram by the way.”

Later the president announced that 20 year old National Guardsman Sarah Beckstrom had died after she was shot. Guardsman Andrew Wolfe, a 24 year old, was also shot and remains in critical condition.

Officials said the suspect is in custody and the investigation is ongoing. Authorities are reviewing the suspect background and how he came to be in the United States as the city mourns and seeks answers.

Reactions on X came in fast and fierce. The posts we include here capture the mood, from eye rolling to outright outrage.

Featured image via YouTube screengrab