Jake
In the aftermath of President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey, a number of lies and misdirections came tumbling out of White House officials. There was the cover story that Comey was fired for being too tough on Hillary Clinton (LOL), the misguided notion Democrats should be happy about the firing, and the utterly untrue claim Comey had “lost the confidence” of the FBI rank and file.
Comey, by all accounts, was widely respected and admired within the FBI, which is something of a problem if you want to claim the contrary. To prop up the lie that Comey was reviled, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told another lie claiming she had personally heard from countless FBI agents who were thrilled that he got sacked.
At the press conference in May of 2017, Fox News’ John Roberts asked Sanders what led the White House to conclude Comey had lost the confidence of the FBI agents.
“Well, I can speak to my own personal experience,” Sanders responded. “I’ve heard from countless members of the FBI that are grateful and thankful for the president’s decision.” (I guess this is true in the sense that you can’t count people that don’t exist, making them technically “countless.”)
We no know (beyond a shadow of a doubt) that this was bullsh*t. The redacted version of the Mueller report says Sanders admitted to the Special Counsel’s team that this was “unfounded.”
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told investigators she lied to the press after Comey firing pic.twitter.com/JNN9ObzKFd
— Dorey Scheimer (@DoreyScheimer) April 18, 2019
Sanders also claimed the lie was a “slip of the tongue,” which is only true if her tongue slipped several times and just kept on slipping.
A reporter at the same press conference followed up, repeating Sanders’ words back to her. “You personally have talked to countless FBI officials, employees, since this happened?”
“Correct,” Sanders replied.
“Really?” The reported incredulously asked.
“Between like, e-mail, text messages? Absolutely, yes,” Sanders said. “I mean, I have heard from a large number of individuals that work at the FBI that said they’re very happy with the president’s decision.”
That’s quite a slip!
Even if it were, in fact, a slip of the tongue, Sanders certainly didn’t make any effort to correct the record. Now people on Twitter are calling for her resignation.
Told you so. Sarah Huckabee-Sanders admitted to Mueller investigators she made up this claim and lied from her official White House perch to the press and public. WE pay her salary. https://t.co/LBmApl2yzm
— Larry Sabato (@LarrySabato) April 18, 2019
I get the snark about @PressSec lying. We know she lies. But admitting, under oath, that she purposefully mislead the press corps from our press room is not something we should think is nbd. It’s stunningly awful and not normal.
— Janet Johnson (@JJohnsonLaw) April 18, 2019
We already knew that Sarah Sanders lies about everything. But now that we know from the Mueller report that she admitted to lying to the press in her own words why should we continue to pay her? She had got to go now.
— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) April 18, 2019
.@presssec resign. https://t.co/YG92E2UB9m
— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) April 18, 2019
And she should, obviously. A press secretary who can’t be trusted shouldn’t be briefing the press. Then again, Sanders—who previously indicated she would leave the administration at the end of last year—doesn’t even do that anymore. At this point we’re just paying her to lie less frequently.
h/t: Business Insider, NBC News