‘I Think the President Wants to Make Clear That He Doesn’t Feel That Anyone Should Be Above the Law’
2018 is less than 40 hours old and yet Sarah Huckabee Sanders can already check off one of her New Year’s resolutions. The White House press secretary Tuesday afternoon may have arrived late as always for the “daily” press briefings she schedules and holds, but when it came time to misinform reporters by massaging her message, Sanders was in rare form.
It may have been Kellyanne Conway who gave America “alternative facts,” but Sarah Huckabee Sanders has mastered the art.
In short, Sanders has really upped her game of Orwellian Doublespeak.
Asked about President Donald Trump’s tweet earlier Tuesday morning, in which he took credit for there being no domestic commercial aviation deaths in 2017 (there were also none in 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, and 2009,) Huckabee Sanders insisted “the president has raised the bar for nation’s aviation safety and security.”
If by “aviation safety and security,†she meant “baggage fees,” and by “raise the bar” she meant “allowed airlines to not disclose up front,” then sure. If not, it was a lie.
And it was a lie. One she was prepared to tell having read it from her notes that apparently had been put through her Doublespeak translator.
President Trump, who Tuesday tweeted falsely he’s been “very strict” with U.S. airlines, has done exactly nothing about aviation safety and security. In fact, all he’s done – or, to be specific, all Secretary of transportation Elaine Chao has one, is reduce or not enforce Obama-era regulations on issues like disclosure of baggage fees. Chao has also sliced penalties against the airlines by more than half.
Huckabee Sanders also was prepared to defend another of President Trump’s Tuesday morning tweets, in which he attacked “Crooked Hillary Clinton’s top aid, Huma Abedin.” (To be clear, Abedin has not been charged with any crime, nor has Hillary Clinton.) But Trump called for Abedin to be jailed, called for former FBI Director Jim Comey to be jailed, and eerily asked if the “Deep State Justice Dept” – that’s his own DOJ  – “must finally act.”
Asked if he thought the so-called “deep state” is real, if there is a “shadow government out there actively plotting to sabotage him,” Huckabee Sander was also prepared.
The Press Secretary told reporters, “Look, the president finds some of those actions very disturbing and thinks we need to make sure that if there is an issue that it’s looked at.”
Huckabee Sanders refused to say there is no “deep state.” (There is no “deep state.”)
And asked if President Trump thinks Huma Abedin should be in jail, Huckabee Sanders let this one fly: “I think the president wants to make clear that he doesn’t feel that anyone should be above the law.”
By “anyone,” Huckabee Sanders must have meant to include, “except for: Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, Mike Flynn, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos, Joe Arpaio, and many others.”
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Thanks to ThinkProgress’ Aaron Rupar for posting the videos.
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