Sarah Huckabee Sanders tried to defend her Wednesday boss the only way she knew how – by twisting the already confusing things he said and lied about to create an even more confusing mess.
After the first terrorist attack in Manhattan since 9/11, President Donald Trump began a campaign to politicize the tragic deaths of eight people to push for tougher immigration policies. Trump singled out Diversity Visa lottery program that Tuesday's terrorism suspect, Sayfullo Saipov, used to become a legal U.S. resident in 2010.
The terrorist came to our country through the so-called Diversity Visa Lottery Program, a Chuck Schumer beauty. I want it to be merit based.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 1, 2017
Sanders' challenge during Wednesday's press briefing was to navigate Trump's political response to the tragedy on the last day of October after refusing to “politicize the tragedy” after a gunman opened fire at a Las Vegas concert on the first day of the month. However, all the White House press secretary could do was mislead the press about what Trump said.
Sarah Sanders is now insisting that the White House is not politicizing the New York attack. Despite this tweet. https://t.co/0YEzuEHgSD — Sarah Murray (@ar Murray) November 1, 2017
Sanders insists Trump did not politicize the tragedy by attacking Sen. Schumer on Twitter and stoking political debate over immigration.
— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) November 1, 2017
Trump called the justice system “a joke” on camera.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders said this never happened. pic.twitter.com/7YcGcx015E
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) November 1, 2017
The White House press secretary then tried to justify Trump's stance on the Diversity Visa Lottery by saying the program has “no verification system.”
Sanders just said there is “no vetting system” for the diversity visa lottery, but that's not true. — Philip Bump (@pbump) November 1, 2017
I know this is redundant: but Sarah Sanders is lying now when she says the Green Card lottery doesn't pass any scrutiny. — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) November 1, 2017
Rationalizing Trump's tweets and off-the-cuff remarks is perhaps the toughest challenge in Washington, but Sanders has taken on the challenge of completely misrepresenting her boss to protect him from bad press.
Sanders cleans up Trump's tweets: “The President did not blame Senator Schumer and does not hold the Senator responsible for the attack.” — Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) November 1, 2017
As even Republican Sen. Jeff Flake noted, Schumer was actually part of the “Gang of Eight” that was trying to kill the pending visa application.
Actually, “Gang 8”, including @SenSchumerended the Diversity Visa program as part of broader reforms. I know I've been there https://t.co/QQFJzPyRzC
— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) November 1, 2017
Sanders also received background information on Trump's proposed cleanup program.
“The fact that we have a lottery system that randomly decides who gets the biggest opportunity in the world… And giving it out randomly, not having a verification system, not being able to determine who's coming, why they're here and whether they want to contribute to society, that's a problem,” she said, defending Trump's call to end the Diversity Visa lottery.
But as reporters in the room noted, an immigrant selected through a lottery program is screened State Department. When Sanders wasn't lying about Trump's misguided views on immigration on Wednesday, she was refusing to condemn slavery.
WH's Sanders: “I'm not going to argue the Civil War again. It's disgusting and absurd to suggest that anyone inside this building would support slavery” – John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) November 1, 2017
And he continued the White House tradition of whining about the press:
.@PeTeralexander: “What are President Trump’s weaknesses?”
Sanders: “He probably has to deal with you every day.” pic.twitter.com/1cU0QnqnTb
— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 1, 2017
