Tag: Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Sarah Huckabee Sanders raised eyebrows with the claim that Trump has never ‘encouraged violence’

White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders raised eyebrows after she claimed during Thursday’s press briefing that President Donald Trump has never “encouraged violence.”

Sanders made the comments while addressing a question about Trump’s vicious Thursday-morning tweet aimed at MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski, who he said was “bleeding badly from a face-lift” during a trip to the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

The tweet was met with widespread condemnation on both the left and right, with a number of Republican members of Congress pointing to the recent shooting of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise as a reason why such harsh rhetoric in American politics needs to be toned down.

“Some have suggested in their tweet, response, or public response that the president misconstrued one of the messages that should’ve been gathered from the shooting that involved Steve Scalise and others, that the hostility of the verbal environment can create an atmosphere of violence,” CBS White House correspondent Major Garrett said in prefacing his question, acknowledging that the shooting “affected” the White House. “Do you have any reaction to that sentiment?”

Sanders responded by saying Trump “in no way, form or fashion has ever encouraged violence, quite the contrary.”

“He was simply pushing back in terms of defending himself,” she added, having pointed to comments made by Brzezinski and co-host Joe Scarborough on the duo’s “Morning Joe” program.

But many were quick to note that Sanders’ comment was not exactly true.

Along the campaign trail, Trump seemed to encourage violence on a number of occassions when discussing protesters at his boisterous rallies.

In February of last year, Trump said he wished he could “punch” a protester “in the face” at a Las Vegas rally. The then-Republican presidential candidate also expressed a desire for a return to “the old days” when “they’d be carried out on a stretcher.”

“Oh, I love the old days, you know?” Trump said. “You know what I hate? There’s a guy, totally disruptive, throwing punches, we’re not allowed to punch back anymore. I love the old days. You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks.”

The crowd loudly cheered.

“You know, I love our police, and I really respect our police, and they’re not getting enough,” he continued. “They’re not. Honestly, I hate to see that. Here’s a guy, throwing punches, nasty as hell, screaming at everything else when we’re talking, and he’s walking out, and we’re not allowed — you know, the guards are very gentle with him, he’s walking out, like, big high fives, smiling, laughing — I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell you.”

After a protester was roughhoused by attendees at an Alabama rally in November 2015, Trump said the protester “maybe” should’ve “been roughed up” because “it was an absolutely disgusting what he was doing.”

At a February 2016 rally in Iowa, Trump told supporters that “if you see someone getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you?”

“Seriously,” he continued. “Okay, just knock the hell … I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise. I promise.”

At a March 2016 rally in Michigan, Trump said those escorting a protester out of the rally should “try not to hurt him” although, if they did, “I’ll defend you in court.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said.

And at a St. Louis rally last March, Trump explained that “part of the problem” and “part of the reason” it takes authorities so long to remove protesters from his rallies is because “nobody wants to hurt each other anymore, right?”

When asked about a number of violent episodes that took place at his rallies, Trump said he “certainly” did not “incite violence” and said that he doesn’t “condone violence.”

[AOL]

White House Tells the World to Watch an Unverified James O’Keefe Video Attacking CNN

At Tuesday’s White House press briefing, Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders used a question from Breitbart News to attack the entire press corps. Breitbart reporter Charlie Spiering asked about a specific story CNN retracted, but in her response, Sanders accused CNN of being “repeatedly wrong” on other stories, and encouraged people to watch an unverified video from James O’Keefe’s disreputable Project Veritas instead.

“Frankly everybody across the country to take a look at it,” Sanders said of the video that was just released Tuesday morning. “I think it’s a disgrace to all of media, to all of journalism. I think that we have gone to a place where, if the media can’t be trusted to report the news, then that’s a dangerous place for America.” She went on to refer to the “Russia/Trump hoax,” suggesting that all of the reporting about President Trump’s connections to Russia was more “fake news.” Her tirade prompted Brian Karem, a local reporter and editor for a Washington, D.C.-area paper, to openly criticize her for demonizing the media in this way.

In the Project Veritas video Sanders referred to, someone is secretly recording a series of casual conversations with John Bonifield, a CNN supervising producer who works in the network’s medical unit. Like just about every other “gotcha” video O’Keefe has released over the years, this one appears to be highly edited. Nevertheless, he claims that Bonifield’s comments prove that CNN knows its stories about collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia are “mostly bullshit,” but is running them heavily just for the ratings.

The New York Times’ Sopan Deb was quick to point out the obvious flaws in the video. Besides the fact the video is clearly edited and O’Keefe is notoriously untrustworthy, a single producer for CNN’s medical coverage has absolutely no authority to speak about the network’s Russia coverage.

This isn’t the first time the Trump administration has promoted O’Keefe’s videos. In a presidential debate last October, then-candidate Trump promoted some of his other videos purportedly showing Hillary Clinton supporters boasting how they were inciting violence against Trump supporters. Though Trump claimed these efforts were “started by her,” there is no evidence in any of the videos to suggest Clinton had any knowledge about the supposed schemes.

And Trump’s support for O’Keefe extends beyond simply promoting his videos. In 2015, the Trump Foundation made a $10,000 donation to Project Veritas. Besides the fact that O’Keefe selectively edits all of his undercover videos, he also has a financial motivation to try to help Trump.

O’Keefe can also thank his duplicitous antics for a criminal conviction. After a botched “sting” of then-Sen. Mary Landrieu in 2010, he and three of his associates pleaded guilty to entering U.S. property under false pretenses. O’Keefe was sentenced to three years of probation, a fine of $1,500, and 100 hours of community service. He later also agreed to pay a $100,000 settlement to an ACORN employee he secretly recorded in 2009.

Of the 17 minutes Sanders spent at the podium on Tuesday, she spent more than half of it criticizing the media, including the spiel in which she peddled O’Keefe’s video. All of the questions that provoked those criticisms came from conservative news outlets like Breitbart and Lifezette, while other outlets that were called upon asked policy questions.

[ThinkProgress]

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White House Warns Reporters Not to Report on Instructions About Not Reporting on Press Conference

The Trump administration, acting on the fairly sound logic that its supporters don’t care in any way whatsoever about the civic principle that the government should be scrutinized by a free press, has started to cut down on the number of press conferences it gives that occur on camera. Wednesday, the administration announced that Thursday’s press briefing by Sarah Huckabee Sanders would be one such no-video affair, then introduced a Kafka-esque twist by declaring that the announcement itself was “NOT REPORTABLE.”

 

White House: Trump is Not a Liar

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday that President Trump is “not a liar” hours after ousted FBI Director James Comey said the president had lied about the FBI.

“I can definitively say the president is not a liar,” Sanders told reporters during an off-camera briefing at the White House. “I think it is frankly insulting that question would be asked.”

Sanders also would not say whether the White House has a taping system that might have recorded Trump’s talks with Comey.

“I have no idea,” she said.

Comey began his highly anticipated testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee by telling the panel that the president had defamed him by saying that the FBI was in disarray under his leadership.

“The administration chose to defame me and, more importantly, the FBI by saying that the organization was in disarray, that it was poorly run,” Comey told a rapt hearing room.

“Those were lies, plain and simple,” he said.

Comey also said that he kept notes of his conversations with Trump because he did not trust the president to tell the truth about their meetings.

“The nature of the person,” Comey said when asked why he kept detailed notes. “I was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of our meeting, so I thought it really important to document.”

Comey said he did not feel the need to do the same thing with former President George W. Bush or former President Barack Obama.

“I knew there might come a day when I might need a record of what happens, not only to defend myself but to defend the FBI and our integrity as an institution and the independent investigative function,” Comey said.

Comey repeatedly said he’d been happy for the president to release any recordings of their conversations, if they exist.

“Lordy, I hope there are tapes,” Comey said.

Trump suggested there might be tapes three days after firing Comey in an apparent effort to keep him silent.

“James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” the president tweeted.

[The Hill]

Reality

As of this article we have 306 instances of Trump and his administration lying.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUZIdEGE964

White House Spokesperson Says it’s Time to ‘Let Go’ of Russia Probe

Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said it’s “time to move on” from the inquiry into alleged links between President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Russian government.

Speaking just hours after Trump suddenly fired FBI Director James Comey, who had been leading the investigation, Sanders told Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson that while the probe would continue without the director, in her view it had already run its course.

“I think the bigger point on that is, my gosh Tucker, when are they going to let that go?” Sanders said. “It’s been going on for nearly a year.”

“Frankly, it’s kind of getting absurd. There’s nothing there. We’ve heard that time and time again. We’ve heard that in the testimonies earlier this week. We’ve heard it for the last 11 months. There is no ‘there’ there,” Sanders said.

“It’s time to move on and frankly it’s time to focus on the things the American people care about,” she added.

Although Sanders said that the investigation should be “let go,” she denied Comey’s firing would disrupt it.

“You will have the same people that will be carrying it out to the Department of Justice. The process continues both I believe in the House and Senate committees and I don’t see any change or disruption there,” she said.

(h/t Time)

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White House Rejects FBI’s Denial Of Trump’s Wiretapping Claims

President Donald Trump’s administration continues to insist that former President Barack Obama ordered Trump Tower to be wiretapped during the presidential campaign, rejecting FBI Director James Comey’s denial of such activity despite not providing evidence to back up its claims.

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Monday whether Trump accepts Comey’s reported request for the Department of Justice to “publicly reject” the president’s unfounded statement.

“No, I don’t think he does,” she replied.

Although he didn’t provide any evidence, Trump claimed over the weekend that Obama ordered wiretapping of his communications last year during his presidential campaign. On Sunday, Sanders even called for an investigation into the matter.

Obama, as well as numerous U.S. intelligence officials, have denied the allegation. James Clapper, former director of national intelligence, said Sunday that “there was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president-elect, at the time, as a candidate or against his campaign.” He also denied that the FBI obtained a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court warrant to investigate the Trump campaign’s alleged contact with Russian officials.

Later that day, The New York Times and other outlets confirmed that Comey told DOJ officials to “publicly reject” Trump’s claim, reportedly saying it was “false and must be corrected.”

The only evidence that the Trump administration has offered are reports from right-wing news sites, maintaining a pattern of spreading unfounded conspiracy theories.

Yet Trump’s team continued to dig into the claims on Monday, while still providing no definitive proof.

“This is a storyline that has been reported by quite a few outlets,” Sanders said Monday, citing mainstream outlets that have reported on the claims but have found no evidence to support them.

Stephanopoulos repeatedly pressed her for evidence, but she had none.
Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, insisted on Fox News that Trump has “information and intelligence” to back up his claims.

“He’s the president of the United States,” she said. “He has information and intelligence that the rest of us do not, and that’s the way it should be.”

(h/t Huffington Post)

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