Speaking with reporters on Thursday morning, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders defended President Trump's criticism of the media in the wake of the explosive packages that were mailed to CNN and some of his critics.

"The President has condemned violence in all forms, has done that since Day 1, will continue to do that. But certainly feels that everyone has a role to play," Sanders said.

When asked by CNN's Abby Phillip about whether he regrets calling political opponents "evil," Sanders said that Trump feels "we should call out despicable acts, which is exactly what he has done over the last 24 hours."

When pressed about whether the term "evil" was appropriate, Sanders lashed out at CNN: "It's a word people have used on your network a number of times, not only to describe the President but many people that work in this administration."

"You guys continue to focus only on the negative. There is a role to play," she continued. "Yesterday, the very first thing that the President did was come out and condemn the violence. The very first thing your network did was come out and accuse the President of being responsible for it. That is not okay. The first thing should have been to condemn the violence."

But that's not true: "That's not the first thing we did as this happened. We reported the news, in fact," CNN's Jim Sciutto just said on air -- Sciutto and Poppy Harlow covered the story live on air after CNN evacuated its newsroom when a bomb was found in the mailroom downstairs.

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