Sarah Huckabee Sanders descended from Donald Trump's hip pocket long enough to hold a 13-minute press conference today to spin today's shenanigans in court with Mike Flynn and announce some things to distract everyone from today's shenanigans in court with Mike Flynn.
So to summarize, we first had the judge scold Flynn and use the "T(reason)" word before backing down and letting Flynn's lawyers get him out of hot water by promising to cooperate more with prosecutors. This means, of course, that Flynn will find himself before Congress next year before his new sentencing date in March, but it also means that justice is delayed in the case of a man who deserves to be locked up, not marinating in conspiracy theories and Islamophobia while he waits for the judge to pronounce his final sentence.
In the process of all of that, Flynn once again re-affirmed that yes, he did willfully lie to federal agents, and yes, he knew better but chose to lie anyway.
Anyone but Sarah Huckabee Sanders would have talked about anything -- the budget, the executive order banning bump stocks, the wall -- but Flynn. And if asked, she could simply have said she had no comment beyond what was on the record with regard to court proceedings and Michael Flynn.
But she didn't. Instead, on three separate occasions (mashed up together for your viewing enjoyment above), Sanders denied Flynn's culpability, instead offering a series of alternative facts about how James Comey played dirty with Flynn, how Peter Strzok wronged him, how the investigation has moved from the question of "collusion" to a much broader scope and what a victim Donald Trump is.
At one point, she swore Flynn was "ambushed," before launching into a litany of what the FBI and Comey did wrong. “What we do know that was inappropriate by own self-admittance of James Comey is the FBI broke standard protocol in the way that they came in and ambushed General Flynn and in the way that they questioned him and the way that they encouraged him not to have the White House counsel’s office present and we know that because James Comey told us that," she snarled at one point, refusing to acknowledge that FLYNN HIMSELF agreed that he knew he was lying and did it anyway.
It was really despicable, but we have her on the record on three separate times in the same press conference. When the truth is known, and all of ugly guts are laid on the table, Sarah Huckabee Sanders will only be remembered for her complicity and ability to lie with a straight face. At that time, she will be known as Shameful Sarah.
Even at the end of her lightning-fast presser, reporter Andrew Feinberg shouted at her: "Do your job!" The video for that is below. It misidentifies the shouter as Brian Karem, but it's confirmed that it was Feinberg.
She can't do her job, though. I don't think she knows how to tell the truth, do you?
