….She is a very special person with extraordinary talents, who has done an incredible job! I hope she decides to run for Governor of Arkansas – she would be fantastic. Sarah, thank you for a job well done!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2019
It is zero coincidence that Sarah Huckabee Sanders quit the White House the same day that Office of Special Counsel head Henry J. Kerner recommended that Kellyanne Conway be fired for her flagrant and repeated violations of the Hatch Act — although Fox News is opining differently. The story over there is that Trump is blaming Sanders for the Stephanopoulos debacle. RawStory:
“The timing of this is odd,” Cavuto said. “Just after the George Stephanopoulos interview with the president, the hypothetical came up about accepting intelligence from a foreign source and the president of course reacted the way he did. He said yeah, I’d be open to it. Maybe he’s pointing the finger, why did you get me into This, sarah sanders?
This is sheer nonsense. Sanders isn’t responsible for what Trump said to Stephanopoulos. And the reason he said what he did about how the FBI director was wrong about getting “dirt” from foreign countries, is because he’s trying to exculpate Donald Jr. That’s the long and the short of it. As long as Senior can say that it’s completely kosher to deal with foreign governments and receive dirt on opponents, campaign finance laws be damned, then Junior looks innocent, and not like the dupe and dope that he is.
This isn’t just my opinion, by the way. Malcolm Nance says the same thing. MSNBC via RawStory:
“…when it’s convenient for the president of the United States to get one of his relatives, in this case, his son, off of the hook, he’s willing to essentially overlook any laws,” Nance said. “And in this case, this is campaign finance law. You cannot accept information from foreign powers, even if they’re allies.”
“It is not just unseemly, it’s against the law,” Nance continued. “But for Donald Trump, things that benefit him are lawful, things that benefit his enemies are criminal, and that’s where we have to draw this bright distinction that he is wrong here and that he is actually soliciting right now from our enemies — he is soliciting future activities, every country in the world is going to try to facilitate this. It will make the 2020 election horrific.”
No, the real story here, as I see it, is that Kellyanne Conway is drawing considerable heat for her flagrant and repeated violations of the Hatch Act. The House Oversight Committee is conducting a hearing on the matter June 26. Conway may go down in flames. Or, if she stays on, she may have to amend her behavior. Which would leave Sanders as the likely heir to be the Hanoi Hannah of the Trump administration — and Sanders is simply not up to it.
For one thing, she lacks Conway’s brains and legal training, for another, it’s been getting to her for some time that people condemn her for her endless lies. New York Times Magazine, May 23, 2018:
“It certainly bothers me,” she said of the “liar” rap. “Because one of the few things you have are your integrity and reputation.” She added that “there’s a difference between misspeaking or not knowing something than maliciously lying.”
No one would argue that a person’s integrity isn’t of paramount importance, I said. But I asked Sanders if there is a danger in linking your integrity to a president who might not always be known for accuracy. There have been many instances where the president has not told the truth, I said.
“But you’re asking about me,” Sanders said, not challenging the premise.
True, I said, but she has to speak for him. I asked the question another way: “Is it possible to be factual if you’re speaking for someone who is trying to make a point that is not factual?”
“Uh, I don’t know,” Sanders said. “I’m not following totally.”
This is classic Sanders-speak. She knew what the reporter was asking, but she cannot be untrue to Trump-God, her idol. That would be heresy. Sanders’ lies are legion and I won’t catalog them here. I think that the smear of Jim Acosta with the doctored video (depicting him karate chopping the arm of a White House intern) and the doubling down afterwards was the worst, personally.
Sanders hasn’t given a press conference in 94 days, unless you want to consider the five minute walk-by that she did two days ago on the White House lawn a press conference. In it, she was asked about the internal polling that showed Trump trailing Biden. She immediately bristled and said, “the polls were wrong in 2016” and the reporter reminded her this was an internal poll, Trump’s own. Then she blew the matter off altogether, “”I’m not worried about polling. The president has an incredible record, he’s had tremendous success and we feel very comfortable about where we are as an administration.”
Then of course there was the obligatory diss of Joe Biden, who was “part of an administration that allowed Russia to interfere in the election.” Point being, while the diss is standard Sanders fare, does it rise to the level of violating the Hatch Act and very probably is the answer. It’s engaging in political activity, while a government employee on the job.
Now, maybe this isn’t right. Maybe she’s not intimidated by the prospect of how to lie and deflect and disrespect Trump’s political adversaries, and not run afoul of the Hatch Act. Maybe it is the Stephanopolous interview that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I don’t think so. I think Sanders is genuinely worried that if/when Kellyanne Conway goes down in flames, or is sufficiently muzzled, that the job of chief propagandist will fall to her and to her alone, and she’s not up for it.
Or, maybe it bothered her that Alec Baldwin called her a “mouthpiece of fascism” a few days ago. If it’s news to you, Sanders has been so clandestine for so long, almost never doing a press conference, that the Washington Post established a feature column, “Sarah Sanders Watch.” The following is from that. Since March 11, just by the by, Sanders hasn’t done a news conference — but she’s been on Fox TV 15 times. So, essentially, the American taxpayers are paying her six figures to talk on Fox News. But let’s get back to Baldwin.
Alec Baldwin announced that he's “so done” playing @realDonaldTrump on “Saturday Night Live”. Good news for viewers who are “so done” with “SNL” & unfunny vicious Trump bashing instead of comedy. For refreshing variety, try my show instead tonight! https://t.co/MTf4xbnNsG
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) June 8, 2019
Who knows what the future holds?
I tell what it should hold. That you, who have sucked a govt paycheck out of the economy while you were a dreadful Lt gov and then gov and that daughter of yours, a mouthpiece for fascism, that you go away.
Just…go away. https://t.co/ipnR7jeRkW— HABFoundation (@ABFalecbaldwin) June 10, 2019
And your show is dreadful. You have no charm, insight or intellect. https://t.co/ipnR7jeRkW
— HABFoundation (@ABFalecbaldwin) June 10, 2019
From Baldwin’s lips to God’s ears, at least so far as Sarah Huckabee Sanders is concerned. Another round of fire exchanged in the culture war. It will rage on, but Sanders is deserting the ranks toute suite. Trump’s going to have to find somebody else to burn lies and create a smoky eye.
I truly thijnk that the criticism has gotten to her, I think her feelings are hurt. I don’t doubt that trump screamed at her, he has to blame someone. She has been ‘leaving,’ for a loonnnggg time. Something has got her knickers in a twist. Bullies are cowards, so her quitting is true to form.
You know, there’s an interesting pattern with the people in Trump World. We hear how they’re quitting/getting fired and then, oh, now, everything is great. Trump says how great they are, they say how happy everything is. And then one day — boom. They’re gone. What is interesting about this, is that Sanders reeeeally is not going to be easy to replace. Not because she’s good at her job, in the traditional sense. She was good at lying and now they need an even better liar. I don’t think they will find one. But who cares, we haven’t had a White House press secretary for years anyhow. What real difference does it make?
I shudder to think how in the heck will we put this mess back together again, after trump is finally gone. I think republicans and trump have ruined us in the eyes of the world. I don’t know how we come back from this.
We’ll find a way, Cmae, once this is over and done. But I’ve been saying for a while now that we’ll never again be what we were.
Arguably, Ursula, we haven’t had a President for three years, so why not a press secretary? This is a really bad time for Trump’s media spin crew to be fleeing from the scene. Ghouliani, possibly Conjob soon and now Sarah Hillbilly Gobbels…I don’t see anybody taking their place.
Great point, Bareshark.
Not only will nobody miss her, nobody will even notice that she’s gone. She hasn’t done anything in over three freaking months, except appear on television, primarily Fox News. She’s a joke. One of the things that she admitted to Mueller’s people was that she made up the story about how the FBI agents and employees were calling the White House to congratulate Trump on firing Comey out of whole cloth. That just went out over MSNBC tonight. Nicole Wallace was talking with Andrew McCabe.
Good riddance to bad rubbish is my take on it.
I read on CNN that she has a Smokey Eye on the Arkansas governor’s double wide in Little Rock.
*smirk*
I’ll have to check that out. I thought Trump was just blowing smoke to make her leaving sound good. Hucky Boo Boo as a the governor of a state….thank God I don’t live there, is all I can say.
BTW, I looked at that Stonewall Riots PBS documentary last night, that you mentioned. First rate. Thanks for the heads up. I think the Hate Rally begins tomorrow. God knows what we’ll see. We’re gonna find out, though, soon enough.
You’re welcome on the Stonewall documentary……I had heard the reference to the event, but never knew the details.
My local TV station had an article on Hate-a-Paloser…..they are not releasing info on where it is going to be held…….ummmm….so how will anyone attend???
https://wtvr.com/2019/06/13/florida-church-plans-to-host-make-america-straight-again-event/
“God knows what we’ll see.”
Miss Ursula, when it comes to this group if miscreants, God has and wants nothing to do with it.
*nods*
They are supposed to release the location on Friday, so that everybody can run over there. I am very sure that the “insiders” know where the shindig is being held. They want to get there and secure the place before the press and protesters show up, is my guess and then they’ll open the doors to the public.
Who knows, maybe it will be a total bust, and there will be more speakers than listeners? This has happened with some Nazi rallies recently. This could be another bomb.
You mean to tell me that Conservaturds DON’T work on Fridays!!??!!??
To hear them tell it, they are the only ones who ever work at all…….
Maybe it’s Friday night when the hate rally starts. All I got was “this weekend” when I was looking it up. And it’s hard work preaching hate all week — and now they’re working the weekend, too. :-))
Oh, how utterly ridiculous she is. The queen of smirk.
Her condescension is supreme. She always wears her pearls and her mother was quoted in the New Yorker as saying, “Pearls before swine,” the swine being the White House press corps. This attitude is reprehensible and the Huckabee family stinks. They are redneck trash with a couple of bucks, IMHO.
I’m glad Alec Baldwin took a good shot at them. Good for him. Maybe being called “the mouthpiece of fascism” was the last straw.
Wow, that’s awful. Alex Baldwin always has great zingers.
I’m just glad she’s leaving. No explanations necessary.
I think she is lying.
*smirk*
That would be in character, certainly. She may not know how to tell the truth at this point. Completely out of practice. That must be something, going through life with a canned set of talking points.
Boom!
It will be very interesting to see her replacement — if there is one. I don’t know who Trump could get to do the job. If I had to make book on it, he’ll just let it go until after the election. Just one more dysfunction in his administration — he probably doesn’t even notice any more. He’s used to things and people falling out all around him.
Kellyanne Conway?
The only person truly qualified to take over for Hucky Boo Boo…
Jon Lovitz reprising his SNL role as the Pathological Liar…..
Yeah…..that’s the ticket….
🙂
That would work.
She’s just embellished her ‘qualifications’ even further with this Hatch Act business.
Remember the old thingy about if a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one there to hear it does it make any sound? Well, here’s the current version: If Sarah Sanders leaves the WH and moves back to Arkansas before the end of the month will anyone hear the silence from the press room podium?
Will anyone really notice she’s gone? Will anyone care?
I’m still not convinced she’s going. We heard late last year she was going but she’s still there, getting caught hiding in the bushes now and then and having to spout out a few more lies. I think she’s stayed on, and will try to find a way to hang on a while longer because she hasn’t got a chance in hell of making the kind of money she’s been making at our expense. That nice, fat WH salary has been worth more than her soul to her and she realized the last time she planned an exit she’s not going to be able to replace it in the private sector. I’ll believe she’s truly gone when there are images of the movers unloading her shit someplace down in Arkansas and video of her taking her kids to school come September.
That White House job is the proverbial rock and a hard place. I can’t see her getting a job in the private sector, either. But if she had stayed with Trump any longer, it certainly wasn’t going to get better. She was supposed to be leaving last December. So, she lasted an additional six months. But I truly can’t see this reversing this decision.
Taking this job was a bad miscalculation on her part. She’s only 35 or so and she’s not only peaked professionally, she’s become infamous. Kellyanne Conway is 52. She can probably go back to polling when this s*itshow gets cancelled. Or, she may have stashed enough money away. Point being, Conway is clever enough to land on her feet one way or another after this is all over. Sanders is not. I think Sanders really screwed herself here, and I saw, great. If there’s one thing I love, it’s to see an arrogant liar go down the tubes.
Not good for Trump…he’s going to need expert media spin folks in the weeks to come. And he’s on the verge of losing his top two folks for that. Oh and isn’t Hope Hicks, another defector from that crew, about to testify in front of a House committee? No, not good for Trump at all.
What’s not good for Trump is good for the country. I wonder what Mick Mulvaney will do with this. He’s probably sitting on a barstool somewhere drinking shots of Bushmills and trying to figure out a way to do yet another job.
I love to see the White House imploding. Such joy.
Personally I’m doing a pretty good imitation of the classic pulp hero The Shadow in my laughter over Trump’s mounting misfortunes. Mulvaney may well need to check into a psych ward after the way his modest “chief of staff” position has expanded.
Goodbye, S.S. Thank you for reminding me that when I say we need to put women into more positions of power, it’s more complicated than finding any woman to do the job.
Trump is faced with SO MUCH conflict at the moment, both feet in the manure pile after one of my better rated regular media persons delivered a perfect one-two punch on Trump’s international permissive stance … it was not preconceived conversation, George was just saying what he did because he stuck to his guns on clarity a number of times, and Boso Lips, being the mental midget he is, took another breath while trying to sidestep any more talk that might sink Junior …
Being the star all the time is hard work, especially for a narcissistic fool that knows nothing pertinent to the presidential office procedures or management of the WH … so his first thought was what to say to keep him as the true power he is as well as divert from any more attention to Junior, of course HE would welcome info from another country, especially one with a despot leader …
That is what the moment was, stomp the other foot into the shit pile he was building all through his interview with George … no thought about any reality involved, and BTW, have you noticed, while he was glowing to George, showing his choices for the new 747 color scheme on the future AF-1, how they, in some ways resemble the old rattle-trap Trump jet colors? [totally screws with the existing light blue colors we enjoyed seeing when Obama sailed down the runway … classy colors]
His colors are harsh and probably easier for lock-on missiles to track, they are clown act colors like DJT … military plane colors have been for years colors to make visibility in flight more difficult … I’m shocked he did not insist on, (USA … King Trump), lettering … it takes about 400 pounds of aircraft grade paint to cover a 747 size plane ….
So glad to see that sack of sh*t, Hucky Boo Boo, leave. Take your plastic pearls with you!
But who will replace her? Only 1 person would do lying justice — drum roll please — IVANKA!