White House press secretary Sarah Sanders had some tough words for the White House press Wednesday in a Fox News interview.
Sanders was asked about the scarcity of press briefings in recent months at the White House. Many in the press have complained about the shortage of briefings even as political tensions have intensified over the recent weeks during the partial government shutdown.
Sanders was asked about the White House Correspondents’ Association publicly criticizing the press secretary for a lack of press briefings since December.
“Look I take questions from reporters every single day,” Sanders replied. “The idea this White House is not accessible to the press is absolutely laughable.”
CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta leaves U.S. District Court on November 14, 2018 in Washington, DC. CNN has filed a lawsuit against U.S. President Donald Trump and top aides alleging that the network and Acosta’s constitutional rights were violated when his White House press credential was revoked last week. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Sanders continued, “I have done over 100 briefings, answered thousands of questions for members of the press. I stopped last night after I finished interview and took more questions from a gaggle reporters standing outside building behind me — We’re on call 24 hours a day.”
The Fox News host asked if the White House was stopping press briefings altogether.
“Look, we’ll see what happens. As the president said yesterday, he doesn’t like the decorum in the White House,” Sanders replied. President Trump criticized the press in comments Tuesday.
Sanders then hit various unnamed reporters for wanting to become “stars” in the press room and becoming “contributors on CNN.”
“We’re in the business of getting information to the American people, not making stars out of people that want to become contributors on CNN,” Sanders said. “And that is a lot of times what we see take place in the briefing room.”
Sanders concluded, “We’re more than happy to take questions. We think there should be a certain level of decorum and honesty and responsibility that comes with that.” (RELATED: Covington Catholic Student In MAGA Hat Says He Wasn’t Disrespectful)
WATCH:
It has been over a month since the last press briefing. Trump recently tweeted that he directed Sanders not to “bother” with press briefings.
“I told her not to bother, the word gets out anyway!” Trump tweeted. “Most will never cover us fairly & hence, the term, Fake News!”
