Trump says “didn't see” racist Obama monkey video clip

• Controversial Video and Backtrack: President Trump and his administration deleted a social media video depicting the Obamas as monkeys after it sparked bipartisan outrage; the White House eventually blamed a staffer's "error" for the post following an initial dismissal of the backlash as "fake outrage."
• Trump’s Defense: Trump claimed he only viewed the beginning of the video and was unaware of the imagery at the end, while Democrats and critics, including Kamala Harris, denounced the incident as a reflection of his divisive rhetoric and dismissed the administration's explanation as a "cover-up."

US President Donald Trump on Friday said he "didn't see" the part of a video posted on his social media account that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys.

"I just looked at the first part... and I didn't see the whole thing," Trump told reporters, adding that he "gave it" to staffers to post and they also didn't watch the full video.

It sparked outrage across the US political spectrum Friday before Trump and his administration deleted it in a rare backtrack.

The White House initially rejected "fake outrage" over the video, only to then blame the post on an error by a staff member.

Democrats slammed Trump as "vile" over the post about the Obamas -- the first Black president and first lady in US history -- while a senior Republican senator said the video was blatantly racist.

Near the end of the one-minute-long video promoting conspiracies about Republican Trump's 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, the Obamas were shown with their faces on the bodies of monkeys for about one second.

The song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" plays in the background when the Obamas appear.

The video repeated false allegations that ballot-counting company Dominion Voting Systems helped steal the election from Trump.

At first, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt played down the row, saying the images were "from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King."

"Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public," Leavitt said in a statement.

But there was an unusual concession from an administration that normally refuses to admit the slightest mistake.

"A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down," a White House official said.

There was no immediate comment from the Obamas.

Former vice president Kamala Harris, who has long condemned Trump's divisive racial rhetoric, called out the White House's backpedaling in a post on X Friday.

"No one believes this cover up from the White House, especially since they originally defended this post," she wrote. "We are all clear-eyed about who Donald Trump is and what he believes."