When Sarah Sanders took to the White House press podium Wednesday, there seemed to be one question on the minds of most reporters in the room.
“Why is Donald Trump sending the military down to the US-Mexico border?”
President Donald Trump broke the news Tuesday that the US military will be used to guard America’s southern border.
“We are going to be guarding our border with our military. That’s a big step,” the president said, “We cannot have people flowing into our country illegally, disappearing, and by the way never showing up for court.”
Sarah Sanders fielded a number of questions about Trump’s declaration during the briefing. One reporter asked about the “urgency” at which Trump was taking the action and if a Fox News report had anything to do with the proposal.
“This sense of urgency about sending the National Guard to the border,” the reporter asked, “does this have anything to do with the report that the president saw on Fox News?”
Sanders dropped a wall on the question.
“It has everything to do with protecting the people of this country,” she said. “It shouldn’t be a surprise. The president has been talking about securing the border for years. Since he started on the campaign trail.”
Sanders then pivoted to blaming Congress for not funding the border wall.
“He asked Congress to do their job. He asked them to pass legislation that would close loop holes that would secure our border and build a wall. He asked them to do a number of things. They failed time and time again and now the president is making sure that in between the Congress actually doing something, he’s doing what he can to protect the people of this country.”
Sanders added one final barb to Democrats in Congress, saying “Democrats apparently can’t show up and do their jobs,” before moving on to the next question.