White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is peddling a new explanation for a lie she told the American people. In at least three different interviews since the release of the redacted Mueller report Thursday, Sanders has attempted to stand by a claim that she had told the investigation — under oath — was utterly bogus.
The lie in question is Sanders’ claim that in May 2017, the White House had heard from “countless” members of the FBI who had lost confidence in James Comey, then-director of the agency. At the time, she claimed the loss of confidence was one of the primary reasons President Donald Trump had fired Comey. Trump himself had written in his letter terminating Comey that morale at the FBI was at an all-time low. But the Mueller investigation found no evidence to support any of those claims, and according to the report, “Sanders acknowledged to investigators that her comments were not founded on anything.”
But in new interviews with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, and CBS This Morning, Sanders stood by the lie she had previously told. Using almost the exact same, clearly rehearsed language in each interview, Sanders insisted the original claim was true.
View the complete April 19 article by Zack Ford on the ThinkProgress website here.