White House calls Jemele Hill’s Trump comments ‘outrageous’

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Wednesday called ESPN anchor Jemele Hill’s comments that President Trump was a “white supremacist” “outrageous” and a “fireable offense.”

“That’s one of the more outrageous comments that anyone can make and certainly that’s a fireable offense by ESPN,” Sanders said during the White House media briefing.

Hill lashed out at the president on Tuesday, saying Trump’s rise “is a direct result of white supremacy. Period. He is unqualified and unfit to be president. He is not a leader. And if he were not white, he never would have been elected.”

Sanders defended Trump and said he has been meeting with “highly respected leaders in the African-American community” in an effort to bridge the racial divide.

“I think that’s where we want to be focused and not on outrageous statements like that one,” she said.

ESPN has called Hill’s comments “inappropriate.”