Correspondents had a lot of questions for the White House Friday after Donald Trump announced the U.S. was just 10 minutes away from a potential war with Iran. Normally, the White House press secretary would brief the press or provide an administration official for background, but these aren’t normal times.
It’s been more than 100 days since Sarah Sanders briefed the press, longer than that since there was a pentagon briefing. The only news from inside the administration comes from leaks, and there are plenty of those.
There was news about the press secretary, but only that she’s leaving and thinking of running for governor in her home state of Arkansas. But what really irked some in the press was the announcement that a couple of correspondents had decided to have a little party. It wasn’t about celebrating her departure. She was actually invited to the event, and it’s apparently being thrown in her honor. Huffington Post reports:
White House correspondents, Politico’s Anita Kumar and DailyMail.com’s Francesca Chambers, invited fellow reporters and some Trump staffers to “farewell drinks” for Sanders at an upscale D.C. restaurant on June 24, according to a copy of the email invitation obtained by HuffPost.
Several correspondents were taken aback by the idea of a party for someone with such a hostile relationship with the press. That included American Urban Radio’s April Ryan, who had this message for Sanders.
The White House and the press rarely (read never) have a good relationship. But Sarah Sanders took it to a whole new level. Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post wrote:
“She would claim to represent the truth on behalf of a president who lies. She did it disrespectfully and apparently without shame or an understanding of what the role of White House press secretary should be. She misled reporters or tried to, and through them, misled the American people. And all with her distinctive curled-lip disdain.”
And then there’s talk about who could be the next press secretary. Could they be worse than Sanders? Apparently, she was a different person behind the scenes. But in front of the cameras and for an audience of one, she did what Donald Trump wanted. Which brings us to the obvious question. Does it really matter who takes the job? As we have learned, no one speaks for Trump.
