The White House downplayed a series of media revelations about a breach at Mar-a-Lago by a Chinese national by saying it wasn't as bad as 'assaults, rapes, murders' and other deaths at the Mexican border.
White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley made the stark comparison Thursday, as he sought to turn attention to the southern border – which Trump had said he might close down this week – rather than the president's exclusive club in West Palm Beach.
He launched the attack following reports of a counterintelligence investigation of the Chinese woman who was arrested inside the president's club with four drive and a thumb drive with 'suspicious malware' after talking her way through security.
'I wish Democrats and the Media cared as much about the countless security breaches at the southern border - resulting in the assaults, rapes, murders, and drug deaths of hundreds of thousands of American citizens - as they do about the "security breach" at Mar-a-Lago,' Gidley wrote Thursday afternoon.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley dismissed the "security breach" at Mar-a-Lago and compared it to rapes and murders committed by illegal immigrants
Gidley used quotation marks when referencing the 'security breach' at Mar-a-Lago.
Gidley's border argument follows that a powerful Democratic committee chair is investigating the security situation at Mar-a-Lago to evaluate any threats to the president.
Trump told reporters Thursday he is not 'ready to close' the southern border, despite issuing dramatic threats that he may do so. He said he would give Mexico a 'one-year warning.'
The focus on security followed the arrest of Chinese woman Yujing Zhang inside the club. According to court documents, she had four cell phones, a laptop, and a thumb drive on her during the arrest – raising the possibility of a coordinated espionage attack.
The White House is downplaying a security breach at Mar-a-Lago following the arrest of Yujing Zhang, a Chinese woman, who tried to enter the club over the weekend
A member of the Secret Service stands guard as US President Donald Trump departs Mar-a-Lago March 25, 2018 in Palm Beach, Florida
A group of Central American migrants -mostly Hondurans- climb the border fence between Mexico and the United States as others try to bring it down, near El Chaparral border crossing, in Tijuana, Baja California State, Mexico, on November 25, 2018. Gidley compared border security to the breach at Trump's private club
'I wish Democrats and the Media cared as much about the countless security breaches at the southern border,' said Gidley
Her arrest followed revelations about Orchids of Asia day spa owner Cindy Yang, who advertised efforts in Chinese to arrange access to Trump family members. Mar-a-Lago members pay a $200,000 initiation fee for club membership.
My pointing to 'hundreds of thousands' of rapes, assaults, and other crimes, Gidley is using a dubious counting method the president has used, only to be called out by fact checkers.
Studies have shown that immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than native-born Americans. The method fails to account for crimes committed by any population, and may include arrests rather than convictions, as well as crimes committed before an immigrant was arrested, an ABC fact-checker pointed out in January.
The security set-up at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club is coming in for increased scrutiny after the arrest of a Chinese woman exposed how the clubs own staff decides when to waive in people who aren't on an approved list of entrants.
Chinese woman Yujing Zhang was arrested at the club after first telling an agent she was heading for the club pool. She made it through two levels of U.S. Secret Service screening after a club official decided to let her in.
Court records say she was carrying four cellphones, a laptop, one external hard drive and a thumb drive that contained 'malicious malware.'
The Secret Service made clear in a statement issued Tuesday night after the incident that it is the club, not
