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Sarah Sanders’s First Press Briefing In 42 Days Backfires On Trump

Trump sent Sarah Sanders out in front of reporters to say that Democrats hate Jews, but the briefing backfired when reporters challenged Sanders on Trump’s racism and bigotry.

The Press Briefing Was Held Because Trump Wants To Run On Democrats Hating Jews

Things went wrong for the White House right out the gate with this exchange between ABC’s Jon Karl and Sanders:
Q Sarah, the President said that Democrats hate Jewish people, according to a recent report. We’ve also seen him tweet in the last couple of days that Democrats are the, quote, “anti-Jewish party.” Does the President really believe Democrats hate Jews?

MS. SANDERS: Look, the President has been an unwavering and committed ally to Israel and the Jewish people. And, frankly, the remarks that have been made by a number of Democrats and failed to be called out by Democrat leadership is, frankly, abhorrent and it’s sad. And it’s something that should be called by name. It shouldn’t be put in a watered-down resolution. It should be done the way the Republicans did it when Steve King made terrible comments. We called it out by name. We stripped him of his committee memberships. And we’d like to see Democrats follow suit.

Q But I ask — first of all, you mentioned Steve King. The President — correct me if I’m wrong — has not condemned Steve King for what he said praising white supremacy. Has the President publicly come out and said anything to criticize or condemn?

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MS. SANDERS: I speak on behalf of the President on a number of topics, and I have talked about that a number of times. And I’d refer you back to those comments where I used words like “abhorrent” and “unacceptable.”

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Reporters wouldn’t allow Sanders to lie about Democrats

It got worse for Sanders when Jim Acosta called her out for lying about Democrats:
Q And just to get back to Jon and Hallie’s question about the President’s comments about Democrats and Jewish people, isn’t that kind of rhetoric just, sort of, beneath everybody?

And do you think that the President has thought at all — going into this 2020 campaign — that the rhetoric just needs to be lowered, whether it’s talking about Democrats, the media, immigrants? Or should we just plan on hearing the President use the same kind of language that we heard in 2016 and all through the first couple of years of this administration?

MS. SANDERS: Look, I think that the real shame in all of this is that Democrats are perfectly capable of coming together and agreeing on the fact that they’re comfortable ripping babies straight from a mother’s womb or killing a baby after birth, but they have a hard time condemning the type of comments from Congresswoman Omar. I think that is a great shame.
The President has been clear on what his position is, certainly what his support is for the people in the community of Israel. And beyond that, I don’t have anything further for you, Jim.

Q Don’t you think that just, sort of, drags down the rhetoric in the debate when you’re saying something that’s just patently untrue? I mean, obviously —

MS. SANDERS: Stating their policy positions is not patently untrue.

Q But Democrats don’t — but Democrats don’t hate Jewish people. That’s just silly. It’s not true. So —

Video:

Trump thought he would smear Democrats, but the press briefing backfired

The briefing had all of the fingerprints of a classic Trump bad idea. Trump thought that he could change the media coverage by sending Sarah Sanders out to proclaim that Democrats hate Jews.

The White House reporters weren’t buying it and took the opportunity to question Sanders about all of Trump’s bigoted statements.

Trump thought that he could change the media narrative and put pressure on the Democrats, but his only accomplishment was highlighting years of his own racist and bigoted remarks.

Sarah Sanders held her first press briefing in 42 days, and the result was another terrible day for Donald Trump.

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