At debate, Sarah Sanders defends avoiding Arkansas press conferences
The White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was at Wednesday’s GOP debate in New Hampshire, and she said it’s a big part of her role.
The first time the president’s spokeswoman discussed it, at the first debate in June, she said the press conferences were important because they “let me put more of a stamp of credibility on what we say. Because when you get press conferences, you say something and then you put your stamp on it, it doesn’t do any good.”
Sanders defended it Wednesday during the debate, saying that it’s often the last thing she does before she returns to her team to cover the White House for a new story that they have just won on CNN.
“Sometimes it’s the last thing you do because you think you’re going to have time, but you never do,” she said. “And when you’re on a live TV news show and you’re trying to be, you know, effective, you make a lot of mistakes.”
And she admitted that, while she has not been “in person” to one in several years, “I love going to the press briefing. I mean, it’s just really a great opportunity. Because I can see the reactions on the podium, you know, the press guys, and that’s pretty helpful.”
“It gets the attention of the president, and it gets the attention of the country,” Sanders added. “It gets the attention of the media. It gets the attention of the White House counsel.”
Sanders was pressed further on Tuesday in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, where she was asked about her attendance at the White House press briefings — a role she was not offered when Jeff Sessions was the attorney general.
“It’s a good question,” she said. “I love the press briefing; I really do. This is a great opportunity to put out your message, to get the country’s attention,