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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested on Monday that CNN was guilty of inciting and “encouraging violence” for its reporting on ICEBlock, a new app that tracks and alerts users to the whereabouts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
Daily Wire reporter Mary Margaret Olohan asked Leavitt to respond to the CNN report, considering there has been a 500% increase in assaults against ICE agents, according to recent DHS reports. Leavitt said she would need to see the segment herself but condemned CNN for airing it nevertheless.
“Surely, it sounds like this would be an incitement of further violence against our ICE officers,” Leavitt said. “As you know, as you stated, there’s been a 500% increase in violence against ICE agents, law enforcement officers across the country who are just simply trying to do their jobs and remove public safety threats from our communities.”
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She continued, “And that’s something we as Americans, including journalists at CNN, who live in many of these cities where illegal aliens are hiding and were let in from the previous administration, should be very grateful for. So we haven’t seen the clip. We’ll take a look at it, but certainly it’s unacceptable that a major network would promote such an app that is encouraging violence against law enforcement officers who are trying to keep our country safe.”
A CNN spokesperson defended the network’s reporting.
“CNN reported on a publicly available app, which is generating attention across the United States, and reached out to ICE for comment prior to publication. After CNN published its reporting, ICE posted a response, which is now included in the story,” the spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
The response reported by CNN came from ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons, who said ICEBlock “basically paints a target on federal law enforcement officers’ backs” and that “officers and agents are already facing a 500% increase in assaults.”
The CNN reported on and aired segments on their channel featuring an interview with the app’s creator, Joshua Aaron, who said he was inspired to create ICEBlock as a way to fight back against deportation efforts which he claimed were reminiscent of Nazi Germany.
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“We’re literally watching history repeat itself,” Aaron said.
He admitted that there is no way to verify every report but promoted “safeguards” to prevent users from “spamming” the app, such as deleting sightings every four hours, limiting reports to a five-mile radius and restricting report sightings to one every five minutes. Users on the app are anonymous.
Aaron added that the app contains a warning to not interact with law enforcement since his goal is not to incite violence.
“Please note that the use of this app is for information and notification purposes only. It is not to be used for the purposes of inciting violence or interfering with law enforcement,” the warning read.
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