White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders on Tuesday said the media is far more divisive in America today than President Trump.
During her daily press briefing, Sanders was asked a barrage of question about whether Trump is racist. One reporter went on a soliloquy, asking: “What do you say to people who look at the pattern of comments that the president has made, specifically about African-Americans, and feel like he is singling those folks out because of their race? Are they missing something? Are they deluding themselves? What do you say to them? Because there are lots of people out there who look at the pattern and say, ‘Yes, he says negative things about a lot of people but there seems to be a particular pattern of singling out African-Americans and commenting in particular about their intelligence, or lack thereof, and their looks.'”
Sanders had had enough.
“Frankly, if we want to look at who’s creating divisions in the country, I think the media has done more to divide this country, certainly far more than this president ever has, by elevating people like the author of this book, by focusing on a sparsely attended rally instead of all of the policies that this administration and that this president are enacting that helping people — not just on the economy but on school choice, on prison reform that’s disproportionately affected African-Americans and Hispanics,” Sanders said.
“This is a president who is governing to help all Americans. And I think we’d all be better off if the media gave that just a little bit more attention.”
Reporters asked more than a dozen questions about Omarosa Manigault Newman, who was fired by the White House and has since penned a tell-all book and accused Trump of saying the “N” word.
Sanders was asked why Trump is “continuing to respond to the charges in this book? Why doesn’t he just ignore it?”
Said Sanders:
Look, I think he’s made, again, the frustrations — I think all — not only those of us here in the White House, but frankly, I think most of America would be happy to ignore. Unfortunately, the individuals in this room continue to create a large platform for somebody they know not to have a lot of credibility, for someone they, frankly, refused to give a platform to when they worked here at the White House.
It wasn’t until this individual started to negatively attack this president and this administration, and try to tear this entire place down, that she received the type of platform and rollout that she’s getting.
I think it would be great if every single person in this room, and every single person in the administration, never had to talk about this again, and we actually got to focus on the real policies and the real things that not matter just to people in this building but certainly all Americans — African-Americans, Hispanics, and everybody in between. I think that would be the best thing that we could certainly do for our country.
On the same topic, Sanders said: “I think if the media continues to give it wall-to-wall coverage, the administration, in some cases, will be forced to respond. But I think it would be better off for all of us to walk away and focus on some things that matter.”
And she added that that’s just Trump being Trump. “Look, the president is somebody who’s always going to fight fire with fire. This is something that isn’t new. And it’s something the American people knew when they voted for him, and they overwhelmingly elected him to be the president of the United States.”