White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is not confident former President Donald Trump will “change his stripes” in time to be reinstated on Facebook after the platform announced it is suspending him for at least two years.
During a press briefing on Friday, a reporter asked Psaki if Facebook’s decision was a “reasonable consequence.”
Psaki explained it is a decision for Facebook to make, and the administration’s view is any platform that is disseminating information has “a responsibility to crack down on disinformation” and “false information.”
“As we look at it, we learned a lot from President Trump, the former president, over the last couple of years about his behavior and how he uses these platforms,” she said.
Psaki continued, “It feels pretty unlikely that the zebra’s going to change his stripes over the next two years. We’ll see.”
Watch part of the press briefing below:
Jen Psaki on Facebook banning Trump for 2 years: ’It feels pretty unlikely that the zebra is going to change his stripes over the next two years. We’ll see’ pic.twitter.com/ddkQefDFRl
— NowThis Impact (@nowthisimpact) June 4, 2021
The reporter then asked if the decision validates “what President Biden has repeatedly said about Mr. Trump which is that words matter?”
The press secretary responded, “I don’t know that it’s a validation. I think the president isn’t the only one who thinks that. Words do matter. Words do have an impact.”
She added, “We saw the impact on January 6 of words on social media platforms, and we’ve seen the impact of words as it relates to disinformation traveling around the vaccine, around election integrity. Of course, we think words matter.”
Facebook announced in a blog post on Friday it would be “suspending his accounts for two years, effective from the date of the initial suspension on January 7 this year.”
The former president responded to the decision in a statement, saying, “They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this censoring and silencing, and ultimately, we will win. Our Country can’t take this abuse anymore!”