In Thursday’s White House daily briefing, Deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders held her own in another pinch-hit appearance for Sean Spicer, tussling with ABC chief White House correspondent Jonathan Karl over the timeline for James Comey’s ouster from the FBI.
At one point in the briefing, Huckabee Sanders had clearly moved on from Karl to another reporter, but he nonetheless continued shouting and Huckabee Sanders invited Karl to “trade places” with her. If not, he’d best remain quiet because “I think it's my turn now.”
The exchange built up to those verbal fireworks with Karl first asking:
Sarah, two parts of the Comey question regarding the interview the President just gave. First of all, isn't it inappropriate for the President of the United States to ask the FBI Director directly if he is under investigation?
Huckabee Sanders responded that she doesn’t believe it was inappropriate so Karl shot back with a follow-up, noting how one such denial of Trump being under investigation came during a dinner with Comey.
“Don’t you see how that’s a conflict of interest? The FBI Director is saying he wants to keep his job and the President is asking whether or not he is under investigation,” Karl wondered.
The daughter of former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee disagreed and Karl took this as a greenlight to offer a lecture masquerading as a question:
It’s a different subject, related to Comey. I asked you directly yesterday if the President had already decided to fire James Comey when he met with the Deputy Attorney General and Attorney General and you said no. Also, the Vice President of the United States said directly that the President acted to take the recommendation of the Deputy Attorney General to remove the FBI Director. Sean Spicer said directly, “it was all him,” him meaning the Deputy Attorney General. Now we learn from the President directly that he had already decided to fire James Comey. So why were so many people giving answers that just weren't correct? Were you guys in the dark? Was the Vice President misled again?
Karl later argued that Huckabee Sanders been providing the press with “answers that weren’t true” regarding why Comey was fired, but not before she took a few swipes at the liberal media, with one being “I know you would love to report that we were misled.”
Huckabee Sanders barely had a chance to speak for more than a few seconds, so she made it clear to Karl that it was her turn to talk:
Hold on, Jonathan. I let you finish and read off every single one of those statements, so unless you want to trade places, I think it's my turn now. I think it's pretty simple. I hadn't had a chance to have the conversation directly with the President to say. I'd had several conversations with him, but I didn't ask that question directly — had you already made that decision? I went off of the information that I had when I answered your question. I've since had the conversation with him, right before I walked on today, and he laid it out very clearly. He had already made that decision. He had been thinking about it for months, which I did say yesterday and have said many times since. And Wednesday, I think, was the final straw that pushed him, and the recommendation that he got from the Deputy Attorney General just further solidified his decision. And again, I think reaffirmed that he made the right one.
Karl concluded by asking if Vice President Mike Pence had been left “in the dark” on something again (the previous being the Mike Flynn saga).
Huckabee Sanders claimed that “[n]obody was in the dark, Jonathan” but nonetheless, “[y]ou want to create this false narrative.” She continued by reading a series of statements from some hypocritical Democrats:
Here's what Democrats said not long ago about Comey. Harry Reid said, Comey “should resign and be investigated by the Senate.” Senator Chuck Schumer said, “I don't have confidence in him any longer.” Senator Bernie Sanders said, “it would not be a bad thing for the American people if Comey resigned.” Nancy Pelosi said, “Comey was not in the right job.” Former DNC chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz said that she thought Comey was “no longer able to serve in a neutral and credible way.” President Obama's adviser, Valerie Jarrett, reportedly urged him to fire Comey. Just yesterday, Representative Maxine Water said that “Hillary Clinton would have fired Comey.”
It may not be the Spicer Show, but Huckabee Sanders has made it evident that she’s more than capable of commanding a room stacked with hostile journalists. Whether Huckabee Sanders remains in her post or is elevated if Spicer is let go, the Trump White House press briefings won’t grow any less contentious.
Here’s the relevant portion of the transcript from May 11's CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin:
CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin
May 11, 2017
2:08 p.m. Eastern
JONATHAN KARL: Sarah, two parts of the Comey question regarding the interview the President just gave. First of all, isn't it inappropriate for the President of the United States to ask the FBI Director directly if he is under investigation?
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: No, I don't believe it is.
KARL: But, one of these conversations the President said happened at a dinner where the FBI Director, according to the President, was asking to stay on as FBI Director. Don’t you see how that’s a conflict of interest? The FBI Director is saying he wants to keep his job and the President is asking whether or not he is under investigation?
HUCKABEE SANDERS: I don’t see that as a conflict of interest and neither do the many legal scholars and others that have been commenting on it for the last hour. So no, I don’t see that as an issue.
KARL: But Sarah, the other thing I want to ask you about is I asked you directly yesterday –
HUCKABEE SANDERS: We're bumping up to three I think now.
KARL: It’s a different subject, related to Comey. I asked you directly yesterday if the President had already decided to fire James Comey when he met with the Deputy Attorney General and Attorney General and you said no. Also, the vice President of the United States said directly that the President acted to take the recommendation of the Deputy Attorney General to remove the FBI Director. Sean Spicer said directly, “it was all him”, him meaning the Deputy Attorney General. Now we learn from the President directly that he had already decided to fire James Comey. So why were so many people giving answers that just weren't correct? Were you guys in the dark? Was the vice President misled again? As happened with the —
HUCKABEE SANDERS: I know you would love to report that we were misled and we want to create --
KARL: But you were giving answers that weren’t true!
HUCKABEE SANDERS: Hold on, Jonathan. I let you finish and read off every single one of those statements, so unless you want to trade places, I think it's my turn now. I think it's pretty simple. I hadn't had a chance to have the conversation directly with the President to say. I'd had several conversations with him, but I didn't ask that question directly — had you already made that decision? I went off of the information that I had when I answered your question. I've since had the conversation with him, right before I walked on today, and he laid it out very clearly. He had already made that decision. He had been thinking about it for months, which I did say yesterday and have said many times since. And Wednesday, I think, was the final straw that pushed him, and the recommendation that he got from the Deputy Attorney General just further solidified his decision. And again, I think reaffirmed that he made the right one.
KARL: But was the Vice President in the dark, too? This is important. Was the vice President in the dark, too?
HUCKABEE SANDERS: Nobody was in the dark, Jonathan. You want to create this false narrative. If we want to talk about contradicting statements and people that were maybe in the dark, how about the Democrats? Let’s read a few of them. You want to talk about them, here's what Democrats said not long ago about Comey. Harry Reid said, Comey “should resign and be investigated by the Senate.” Senator Chuck Schumer said, “I don't have confidence in him any longer.” Senator Bernie Sanders said, “it would not be a bad thing for the American people if Comey resigned.” Nancy Pelosi said, “Comey was not in the right job.” Former DNC chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz said that she thought Comey was “no longer able to serve in a neutral and credible way.” President Obama's adviser, Valerie Jarrett, reportedly urged him to fire Comey. Just yesterday, Representative Maxine Water said that “Hillary Clinton would have fired Comey.” If you want to talk about people in the dark, our story is consistent. The President is the only person that can fire the Director of the FBI. He serves at the pleasure of the President. The President made the decision. It was the right decision. The people that are in the dark today are the Democrats. They want to come out, they want to talk about all of these -- they love Comey and how great he was. Look at the facts. The facts don't lie. Their statements are all right there. I think it's extremely clear that -- and frankly, I think it's kind of sad, in Washington, we finally had something that I think we should have all been able to agree on, and that was that Director Comey shouldn't have been at the FBI, but the Democrats want to play partisan games and I think that's the most glaring thing that’s being left out of all of your processed stories.
