‘I Made a Comment. I Stand by It.’
Sarah Huckabee Sanders is under fire once again after doubling down Friday on her call to have an ESPN reporter fired for calling President Trump a white supremacist. “I do,” the White House press secretary told reporters when asked if she stands by her call that “SportsCenter” host Jemele Hill should be fired.
On Wednesday, the White House press secretary called Hill’s remarks a “fireable offense,” drawing the anger and ire of journalists, civil rights activists, and many Americans. Huckabee Sanders’ remarks led to many social media users tweeting, “Donald Trump is a white supremacist.”Â
Huckabee Sanders was reminded that President Trump Friday morning called on ESPN to apologize for what he called an “untruth,” presumably, that he is a white supremacist. Asked if he would apologize for his birther attacks against former President Barack Obama, Huckabee Sanders dodged, saying Trump has already addressed those remarks. (Trump has never once apologized for his many years of attacking Obama’s citizenship.)
Huckabee Sanders then waded into territory in which the White House literally has no business: what ESPN human resource policies should be. She also said ESPN should be “consistent” in upholding policies.
The Trump administration has been extraordinarily inconsistent in upholding its own policies, both in actual U.S. policy, and in employee policy. For example, the White House gave now-former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon an undated and unsigned waiver allowing him to talk with his former employer, Breitbart, a far right wing website. That waiver was called “problematic” by the director of the Office of Government Ethics.
Raw Story adds that Huckabee Sanders on Friday also told reporters that whether or not someone should be fired is not her “decision to make for a private company.”
“I was asked specific about that individual. I made a comment. I stand by it. I think ESPN needs to stand by the standard that they have set in their own actions that they have taken about previous employees.”
Some responses to Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ latest comments attacking ESPN and Jemele Hill:
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