Sarah Sanders says White House is not in the business of 'making stars' out of CNN wannabes
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders appeared on Wednesday’s Fox & Friends to defend herself amid criticism that she had stopped holding official press briefings at the president’s direction.
Trump tweeted on Tuesday that he told the press secretary “not to bother” with the briefings because she’s “rudely and inaccurately” covered by the media.
The reason Sarah Sanders does not go to the “podium” much anymore is that the press covers her so rudely & inaccurately, in particular certain members of the press. I told her not to bother, the word gets out anyway! Most will never cover us fairly & hence, the term, Fake News!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2019
“The idea this White House is not accessible to the press is absolutely laughable. I have done over 100 briefings, answered thousands of questions for members of the press,” Sanders said. “The president takes questions nearly every single day from reporters. We’re on call 24 hours a day.”
When asked by host Brian Kilmeade if the press briefings are officially done with, Sanders said we’ll need to see what happens.
“We’re in the business of getting information to the American people, not making stars out of people that want to become contributors on CNN, and that is a lot of times what we see take place in the briefing room,” Sanders said, later adding: “We’re more than happy to take questions, but we think there should be a certain level of decorum and a certain level of honesty and responsibility that comes with that.”
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Viewers on Twitter pretty much agree that they won’t miss the press briefings, but for rather different reasons.
The President works for the people, not the press.
— ptcitychick (@ptcitychick) January 23, 2019
No briefings? Maybe we will have fewer POTUS and WH lies. We can only hope.
— Alan Frutchey (@alanfrutchey) January 23, 2019
They’re not wannabes, you’re a has been. If you can’t handle the job, get someone else to do it! Easy!
— Cindy (@CCINDYT7) January 23, 2019
So… you are essentially saying CNN owns you,makes you look like a fool, and you would rather hide. Ok, noted.
— Elijah Joel (@elijahjoel) January 23, 2019
Others were supportive to see the briefings go by the wayside.
Bwahahaha – "CNN Wannabes" https://t.co/D6nomLD9x7
— Kimberly Haney (@kimberlyhaney) January 23, 2019
Good for @PressSec Sarah Sanders!! Hard to watch her have to walk into the lion's den and be disrespected daily. Why do it!! No one should have to deal with that on a daily grind. CNN needs a REALITY CHECK..no one believes them. They watch like people watch an accidents happenOMG https://t.co/66iTJCc1SA
— debbierausch (@debbierausch) January 23, 2019
Sanders also took issue with the accuracy of the media on Hannity Tuesday night, particularly last week’s BuzzFeed News report that stated President Trump had told his attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress.
“What happened with BuzzFeed is a great lesson for the media. Quit trying to be first and start trying to be right,” Sanders said.
She also went after the media’s coverage of the recent incident in Washington, D.C., involving Covington Catholic High School students at the March for Life rally.
“I’ve never seen people so happy to destroy a kid’s life. When that becomes the norm in the media, in America simply because they are associated with this president, that is disgraceful,” Sanders said. “The idea that anybody could take joy in the destruction of young kids is absolutely outrageous to me. That is exactly what we saw members of the media and other leaders do.”
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