Accounting for a ‘slip of the tongue’ by Sarah Sanders
Sarah Sanders, who has what I think is the toughest job in Washington, will leave her post at the end of June.
As White House press secretary and deputy press secretary before that, she defended President Donald Trump’s credibility against an increasingly aggressive White House press corps.
Her own credibility took a hit when it became known she had made a claim that received a lot of attention but was unfounded.
On May 9, 2017, Trump fired James Comey as director of the FBI.
The next day, Sanders, then deputy press secretary, told reporters in a televised briefing, “The rank and file of the FBI had lost confidence in their director.”
When a reporter challenged her statement, Sanders responded, “Look, we’ve heard from countless members of the FBI.”
What she said surprised me. When I was a young police reporter with the City News Bureau of Chicago, FBI agents never told me anything more than “No comment.”
So it was hard for me to believe “countless members of the FBI” had informed people outside the bureau that they had “lost confidence” in their boss.
Was Sanders telling the truth?
No, according to the report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
A redacted version of his “Report into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election,” released April 18, cites eight occasions when Trump or his aides provided false or misleading information to the news media.
One piece of false or misleading information was the justification Sanders gave for the firing of Comey.
On page 72 of the report’s volume 2, Sanders is quoted as telling investigators her claim that countless FBI agents had lost confidence in Comey was a “slip of the tongue.”
The report says she recalled that her statements were made “in the heat of the moment” and were “not founded on anything.”
Comey said he was fired because he did not pledge his loyalty to Trump.
Take note of those expressions “slip of the tongue” and “in the heat of the moment.” They deserve to join “fake news” and “alternative facts” as entries in the Trump administration lexicon.
After the redacted report was released, Sanders seemed to walk back what she had told the special counsel’s investigators.
On Fox News, she told Sean Hannity: “I acknowledged that I had a slip of the tongue when I used the word ‘countless,’ but it’s not untrue.” She added, “A number of both current and former FBI agents agreed with the president.”
On ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Sanders was asked by George Stephanopoulos if the Mueller report had damaged her credibility. She said her statement was not “a scripted talking point.”
Does “scripted talking point” qualify for the Trump administration lexicon?