A White House correspondent who often says outrageous things on CNN, where she moonlights as a contributor, says Press Secretary Sarah Sanders should for pay her bodyguard for “stirring it up.”
April Ryan, the Washington bureau chief for American Urban Radio Networks, is often combative in the daily White House briefings, interrupting Sanders and demanding answers (along with posing questions about whether President Trump is a racist). That commitment to true journalism (ha) has led to problems, she claims.
“I’ve had some people wait for me outside the White House,” Ryan told The Hollywood Reporter. “There is a concern now. I mean, I’ve had death threats, I’ve had craziness, so I have a real concern.”
“Do I have a bodyguard?” Ryan said. “Yes, I do. Am I paying for it? Yes, I am. And, I think [Sanders] should have to pay for it, especially if she’s stirring it up with her boss.”
“I did not sign up for this. I was just doing a job,” Ryan added.
Ryan said she began receiving death threats after she asked Sanders if President Trump was considering resigning.
She has cashed in as part of the “fake news” anti-Trumpers. She has a new book coming out in September, “Under Fire: Reporting From the Front Lines of the Trump White House,” which she’ll hype in coming appearances on “The Daily Show,” “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos and, of course, on CNN, THR reported.
“If I don’t tell the story, you won’t get it. So, I’m putting it out there, because people see one side of it. I’m giving you the whole thing,” Ryan said. “The way they’ve treated me for asking questions that are fair and logical.”
“They’re still very angry at me for asking the question, ‘Mr. President, are you a racist?’ And that’s why I’m on a list,” Ryan said, claiming there’s a “White House blacklist” of “people they don’t like.”
Ryan plays every card in the book when asked about Sanders. “She should be ashamed of herself for going out there, saying some of the things that she’s said. She tries to insult my intelligence. And not just my intelligence, the world’s intelligence. … They always have to go back and press-splain, man-splain the president after he says something,” she said.
Ryan also floated this conspiracy theory: Omarosa Manigault Newman pushed the rumor that Trump used the N-word in an attempt to take attention away from Aretha Franklin’s failing health.
“She did it because Aretha Franklin didn’t want her at her birthday party,” Ryan said. “That’s how vindictive Omarosa is.”
Oy.