Senior White House official Mercedes Schlapp slammed a viciously false viral tweet of a year-old video of President Trump calling MS-13 gang members animals that the poster, Mark Elliott, falsely captioned, “. @ realDonaldTrump on people asking for asylum “These aren’t people. These are animals.”

Elliott’s tweet was posted Friday evening as Trump was in California inspecting new replacement border fencing. The video was picked up from a misleadingly edited C-SPAN tweet from May 16, 2018. The view counter showed over 13 million views as of Saturday afternoon. However just under half of those views likely occurred before the reposting by Elliott. Regardless, Elliott’s smear of Trump has gone viral enough to require a response from the White House. High ranking Democrats, including presidential candidates, as well as prominent Trump critics have promoted the viral lie.

Schlapp, an Assistant to the President serving as Director of Strategic Communications, posted Saturday afternoon, “Complete lie from @ markmobility tweet. POTUS was talking about MS13 gang members as animals.”

.@realDonaldTrump on people asking for asylum "These aren't people. These are animals." pic.twitter.com/pTKY08Obm2 — Mark Elliott (@markmobility) April 5, 2019

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Complete lie from @markmobility tweet. POTUS was talking about MS13 gang members as animals. https://t.co/DFjbFpZ6zW — Mercedes Schlapp (@mercedesschlapp) April 6, 2019

Full context of Trump’s remarks shows he was responding to a complaint by Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims about California’s sanctuary laws protecting criminal illegal aliens including MS-13 gang members.

Schlapp also retweeted several critical comments by others, including Benny Johnson going after DNC Chaor Tom Perez for promoting the viral lie.

So incredibly irresponsible/desperate for the DNC Chair to be spreading this lie https://t.co/aaNds2vKkU — Benny (@bennyjohnson) April 6, 2019

You just pushed a complete lie with over 13 million views now. Here's the full clip showing that Trump called MS-13 gang members… NOT asylum seekers animals… pic.twitter.com/f1hOkWqdMU — Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) April 6, 2019

Democrat presidential candidate Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) commented Saturday morning, “Racist language like this has led to violence throughout the world’s history. No human being is an animal. We have to be better than this.”

Racist language like this has led to violence throughout the world’s history. No human being is an animal. We have to be better than this.https://t.co/TQ0MhJFGtq — Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) April 6, 2019

South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, also running for the Democrat presidential nomination, commented Saturday, “You do not refer to human beings as animals. You just don’t.”