Sanders to step down as press secretary
Won’t rule out notion of running for governor
WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Sarah Sanders will leave her post at the end of the month, President Donald Trump announced Thursday.
Trump said he’s encouraging her to run for governor when she returns home to Arkansas, where her father once held the job.
Sanders is one of Trump’s closest and most trusted White House aides and one of the few remaining who worked on his campaign, taking on the job of advocating for and defending a president who had his own unconventional ideas about how to conduct the people’s business.
At an unrelated White House event, Trump described Sanders as a “warrior” as he called her to the stage. Sanders, appearing emotional, said serving Trump has been “the honor of a lifetime” and pledged to remain one of his “most outspoken and loyal supporters.”
Sanders, who is married and has three young children, later told reporters she wanted to spend more time with her family, but she did not rule out running for public office.
“I learned a long time ago never to rule anything out,” said Sanders, 36. She was the first working mother and just the third woman to be named White House press secretary.
Under her roughly two-year tenure as chief spokeswoman for the White House, daily televised briefings led by the press secretary became a relic of the past after Sanders repeatedly sparred with reporters who aggressively questioned her about administration policy, the investigation into possible coordination between Trump’s campaign and Russia or any number of controversies involving the White House.
Sanders has not held a formal briefing in more than three months — since March 11 — and said she does not regret scaling them back. Instead, reporters were left to catch her and other administration officials on the White House driveway after their interviews with Fox News Channel and other networks.
Trump also has made it a habit to regularly answer reporters’ questions in a variety of settings, most notably on the South Lawn before boarding the Marine One helicopter. Sanders often sought to justify the lack of formal briefings by saying they were unnecessary when journalists could hear from Trump directly.
Sanders’ credibility has at times come under question since she succeeded Sean Spicer, Trump’s first press secretary, in mid-2017.
However, behind the scenes, Sanders worked to develop relationships with reporters, earning the respect and trust of many of those on the beat.