White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders promoted one of President Donald Trump’s favorite themes at a press conference on Monday — namely, that the media which makes any reporting mistakes should simply not be trusted.
“There’s a very big difference between making honest mistakes and purposefully misleading the American people, something that happens regularly,” Sanders told reporters at the White House press briefing. “You can’t say that it’s an honest mistake when you’re purposefully putting out information that you know to be false. Or when you’re taking information that hasn’t been validated, that hasn’t been offered any credibility, and that has been continually denied by a number of people, including people with direct knowledge of an instance.”
She added, “I’m speaking about the number of reports that have taken place over the last couple of weeks. I’m simply stating that there should be a certain level of responsibility in that process.”
Sarah Sanders claims that news outlets are intentionally reporting inaccurate information pic.twitter.com/1JucC5kL0S
— Axios (@axios) December 11, 2017
Twitter users naturally noticed the irony of a Trump lackey criticizing, well, anyone for playing fast and loose with facts.
Shot: "You cannot say it's an honest mistake when you're purposely putting out information you know is false" – @presssec
Chaser: https://t.co/BEfLdWtBnJ
— Eric Koch (@EricDKoch) December 11, 2017
The President’s press secretary is claiming, from the podium, that major news outlets deliberately disseminate false information to harm the administration.
— David S. Bernstein (@dbernstein) December 11, 2017
President Trump on Saturday called for a Washington Post reporter to be fired because of a tweet about the size of the crowd at Trump’s Pensacola, Fla. rally on Friday.
On Monday, Sanders also defended Trump from the multiple accusations of sexual misconduct that have dogged him since the 2016 presidential campaign, repeating an earlier administration claim that the issue is no longer relevant because Trump won that election.
“The American people knew this and voted for the president, and we feel like we’re ready to move forward in that process,” Sanders told reporters.
She added, “The president has said that it’s a good thing for women to be able to feel comfortable in coming forward, generally speaking.”
When asked about Trump bragging to Howard Stern that he could walk in on teen beauty pageant contestants while they were in their dressing rooms, and whether she considered that to be sexual harassment, Sanders replied, “Look, the president has spoken about this directly. I don’t have anything further to add.”
