‘Were you lying?’: pressure mounts on White House press secretary Sarah Sanders after shifting stories undermine her credibility
Rudy Giuliani’s stunning admission about hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels placed Sanders in an awkward position
“Again, I gave you the best information that I had,” Sanders said over and over again Thursday in response to questions about why the White House failed to disclose that Trump had reimbursed his long-time lawyer, Michael Cohen, for the US$130,000 payment to keep Stormy Daniels quiet.
“Were you lying to us at the time? Or were you in the dark?” one reporter asked.
It was an awkward position for Sanders, who is tasked with speaking on behalf of the American president. It also highlighted the difficulty the White House communications office has had in navigating an unpredictable and freewheeling president.
“As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!” Trump tweeted last year.
Sanders on Thursday had to acknowledge that Giuliani hadn’t given her a heads-up that he would reveal that Trump had reimbursed Cohen. She said she didn’t know about the reimbursement at all until Giuliani’s interview on Wednesday night.
“I’m not part of the legal team and wouldn’t be part of those discussions,” she said when asked whether she’d been caught off guard.
It was an omission by design.