UNITED NATIONS – White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the broken escalator at the U.N. that forced President Trump and first lady Melania Trump to walk up it may have been the result of sabotage.
Ms. Leavitt said the Secret Service is looking into the matter, and if anyone is found to be responsible, there will be “accountability.”
“So when you put all of this together, it doesn’t look like a coincidence to me. And I know that we have people, including the United States Secret Service, who are looking into this to try to get to the bottom of it. And if we find that these were U.N. staffers who were purposely trying to trip up, literally trip up the president and the first lady of the United States, well, there better be accountability for those people,” Ms. Leavitt said late Tuesday on Fox News’ “Jesse Waters Prime Time.”
The president and first lady were riding the escalator Tuesday when it jolted to a stop. After a few moments of Mr. Trump looking around, Mrs. Trump began walking up the escalator. The incident happened when Mr. Trump arrived at the U.N. to address the General Assembly.
He complained about the broken escalator multiple times in his speech.
“All I got from the United Nations was an escalator on the way up that stopped right in the middle,” he said, adding that Mrs. Trump would have fallen if she were not in great shape.
A U.N. spokesman said Tuesday the escalator may have suddenly stopped because a White House videographer, who was traveling backwards up the escalator to film Mr. Trump, may have inadvertently set off the escalator’s safety alarms.
“A subsequent investigation, including a readout of the machine’s central processing unit, indicated that the escalator had stopped after a built-in safety mechanism on the comb step was triggered at the top of the escalator. The safety mechanism is designed to prevent people or objects from accidentally being caught and stuck in or pulled into the gearing,” Stephane Dujarroc, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said in a statement.
Some conservative media personalities have also suggested that the broken escalator was the result of sabotage.
“They sabotaged him, and they could’ve hurt the first lady,” Mr. Watters said on his program.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.