During his daily COVID-19 briefing on Saturday, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said that he did not see President Donald Trump’s tweets that supported rallygoers who harassed News 12 reporter Kevin Vesey this past week.

“I did not see the tweet. I heard about this just in some conversation with some people here. But I did not see the tweet. I am not following anyone on Twitter,” he said.

When pressed by Newsday’s Craig Schneider for his reaction to what he had heard, the county executive responded:

"Obviously, any time anyone is talking about someone who is from the media, who is doing their job to report the news, and in any way denigrating that, I obviously would completely disagree with that."

Schneider then asked if Bellone would be instructing police to do more to protect journalists at future rallies.

Bellone then said that journalists perform a “critical function” in a Democracy and wrapped up his comments on the matter.