and escalating it with a video on sunday. white house officials have not responded to requests for comment, asking if they stand by their statement that the president has never encouraged violence in any form. the only administration official who has responded to the president s tweet is homeland security adviser tom bossert when he appeared on abc sunday morning. here s bossert s reaction to the president s tweet i think that no one would perceive that as a threat. i hope they don t. i think he s beaten up in a way on cable platforms that he has a right to respond to. he does that regularly and you don t think that s a threat to anyone? you don t think that s sending a message, do that to the media, do that to cnn? no. i don t think so. i think that importantly here he s a genuine president ex-pressing himself genuinely. to be honest, i think that s why he was elected. reporter: the white house often says that the president is his own best messenger, and twitter is a platf