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Reporter Schools Sarah Sanders After She Repeatedly Refuses to Say if Trump Truly Believes Democrats Hate Jews
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tried to use white nationalist Congressman Steve King as a role model for how the Republican party supposedly will not allow bigotry, but instead got a lesson from a reporter.
At her first press conference in over 40 days, Huckabee Sanders noted that House Republicans stripped Iowa GOP Rep. Steve King of his valuable committee assignments after his racist and bigoted remarks made international headlines. King has been making those remarks for many years.
Noting that President Donald Trump‘s latest attacks on Democrats are that they “hate Jews,” and called them the “anti-Jewish party,” Jon Karl asked, “Does the president really believe Democrats hate Jews?”
“Look. The President’s been an unwavering and committed ally to Israel and the Jewish people,” Huckabee Sanders said, appearing to be reading from a script. “And, frankly, the remarks that have been made by a number of Democrats, and failed to be called out by Democrat leadership is frankly abhorrent and it’s sad. It’s something that should be called by name – it shouldn’t be put in a watered-down resolution,” she charged.
Huckabee Sanders did not, in fact, name any Democrats, much less any who have made offensive remarks that have not been rebuked by Democratic leaders.
“It should be done the way Republicans did it when Steve King made terrible comments. We called it out by name, we stripped him of his committee memberships, and we’d like to see Democrats follow suit,” Sanders said.
She did not mention that the President of the United States regularly makes misogynistic, racist, and anti-Muslim remarks, and is almost never called out by his party leaders, nor does he ever apologize.
“First of all you mentioned Steve King. The President – correct me if I’m wrong – has not condemned Steve King.”
.@jonkarl: Does the president really believe Democrats hate Jews?
SANDERS: [dissembling]
REPORTER: But the president hasn’t even condemned Steve King
SANDERS: Ah, aiya… I speak on behalf of the president. pic.twitter.com/CjzYBctNcI
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 11, 2019
King finally lost his House committee seats after rhetorically asking when terms including white nationalist and white supremacist became offensive.
Sanders could only respond that she speaks for the president and she has condemned King’s remarks.
Asked again if the President truly believes Democrats hate Jews, a claim for which there is no evidence, Sanders would only reply, “I think that’s a question you ought to ask the Democrats.”
Reporter: Does [Trump] think Democrats hate Jewish people?
Sanders: Democrats have had a number of opportunities to condemn specific comments but have refused to do that. That’s a question, frankly, I think you should ask Democrats pic.twitter.com/K6U3QdCqur
— POLITICO (@politico) March 11, 2019
And while Huckabee Sanders says she thinks Democratic leaders should condemn those unnamed Democrats who are making anti-Semitic remarks (of which there has been only one, it has been addressed) she neglected to note that 24 Republicans, including Rep. Steve King, refused to vote for last week’s resolution condemning anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim rhetoric, along with racism and other forms of bigotry. All Democrats voted in favor of the resolution.
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WATCH: TRUMP LABELS NEARLY UNANIMOUS HOUSE VOTE CONDEMNING HATE AND BIGOTRY ‘A DISGRACE’
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