GOP Congressman Defends Trump's Tweets: 'He's Just A Fun Guy'

Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) apparently can’t help but laugh when he thinks about President Donald Trump’s bizarre behavior on Twitter over the weekend.

CNN ’s Alisyn Camerota attempted to ask Collins on Monday what he thought about Trump’s recent tweets, which shared a doctored image of the president  appearing to hit Hillary Clinton  with a golf ball, and called North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un a “rocket man.”

But the Republican member of Congress began giggling before Camerota could finish asking the question.

“You’re laughing already,” Camerota said. “Which part do you find most amusing?”

Collins was quick to defend Trump’s “rocket man” tweet, noting that the tag likely appealed to the president’s most ardent supporters.

“The president does have a sense of humor,” Collins said. ”‘Rocket man’ was I thought poking at Kim Jong Un, frankly, in a pretty funny way ... to get under his skin.

“Let’s face it: Whenever he’s tweeting, President Trump is talking straight to his base,” Collins added. “They enjoy it. He’s delivering a message.”

Trump’s “pretty funny” comment about North Korea came just days before his first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, where discussion of the isolated country’s growing nuclear program will be a top priority. Collins predicted the “stuffy diplomats at the U.N.” would be surprised by Trump’s “fun” behavior.

″One thing about President Trump: He doesn’t stand on protocol at all,” Collins said. “He’s just a fun guy. He really is ... and that goes for the way he handles his Twitter account, which is him speaking directly like people do as they are having a cup of coffee at Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts.”

As for Trump’s retweet of what appeared to be violence against Clinton on Sunday, Collins claimed he hadn’t seen it.

“Anything and everything can be taken out of context,” he said after CNN showed the clip from Trump’s tweet on screen for Collins to watch. “I’m not going to tell the president what to do, but I would always suggest to anyone and everyone, don’t forward [email] and don’t retweet.”

It’s not unusual for Trump to retweet random accounts, occasionally including users who have racist, Islamophobic or anti-Semitic views.

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