Comedian Michelle Wolf is doubling down on critics taken aback by her skewering of White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders at Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
“I actually really like Sarah. I think she’s very resourceful,” Wolf said of Sanders during her set. “She burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s lies. It’s probably lies.”
“I’m never really sure what to call Sarah Huckabee Sanders,” the comedian continued. “Is it Sarah Sanders, Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Is it Cousin Huckabee? Is it Auntie Huckabee Sanders? Like, what’s Uncle Tom but for white women who disappoint other white women?”
Several reporters in attendance, including the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman, tweeted their dissatisfaction with Wolf’s seeming “criticism of [Sanders’] physical appearance.”
That @PressSec sat and absorbed intense criticism of her physical appearance, her job performance, and so forth, instead of walking out, on national television, was impressive.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 29, 2018
Wolf responded directly to Haberman early Sunday morning, insisting the jokes were about Sanders’ “despicable behavior,” not her looks.
Wolf also responded to former White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s assessment of the event as a “disaster.”