White House press secretary Sarah Sanders held her first press briefing since July 2. Her attempt to reshape the message in light of President Donald Trump‘s recent controversial remarks on Russia, and subsequent walk-backs, though, did not exactly get rave reviews.
In fact, during a CNN panel, they likened her performance to gaslighting.
It all happened during a discussion of the briefing on The Lead With Jake Tapper.
Tapper had just played a clip for the panel of Sanders claiming that when Trump said “no” to reporters earlier today, he was actually NOT referring to Russian meddling, he was just saying “no” to answering questions.
For the record, that is not how the reporter who actually asked the question remembers the exchange.
Getting a lot of questions about my exchange with @realDonaldTrump today.
Yes, he was looking directly at me when he spoke.
Yes, I believe he heard me clearly. He answered two of my questions.
Here’s the full exchange: pic.twitter.com/F3QmDSFzpT— Cecilia Vega (@CeciliaVega) July 18, 2018
The Daily Beast Washington Bureau Chief Jackie Kucinich prefaced the clip by saying they’re “trying to gaslight us all.”
USA Today columnist Kirsten Powers wasn’t buying Sanders’ words either.
Responding to Tapper questioning why the White House just can’t give a direct answer, Powers said, “Why is this so hard? Right? Why is it always so hard with this issue comes up? I think gaslighting is a perfect word to use.”
Then when Tapper asked to explain what that meant, she said, “Drive people crazy and then call them crazy. So, you are just constantly––like you are crazy and hysterical.”
“By lying to them,” Tapper chimed in, “By telling people that up is down.”
She then noted, “They keep sort of acting like ‘why is everybody acting so strange about this.’ But, it’s clear why everyone’s acting so strange. Because they’re acting strange.”
Watch above, via CNN.
[image via screengrab]