Sarah: How Do I Lie to Thee? Let Me Count the Ways
On This Day In 2019
The communications style of the White House Spokesperson often influences the way Americans evaluate their president. JFK’s image was bolstered by the charm, youth, and uncanny intelligence of his press secretary Pierre Salinger. Bill Clinton signaled his presidency would be about fresh starts when he appointed a young Dee Dee Myers--the first female in that role. Ari Fleischer's seeming mastery of the facts was a boon to George W. And Joe Biden's appointment of Karine Jean-Pierre as the first Black and the first openly-gay full-timer in that role indicated he was turning the page from his predecessor's term.
So what does it say about Trump that he chose Sarah Sanders? Sanders is a person who lied often, and she lied with impunity. But why did she do that so frequently? Washington Post Opinion Columnist Jennifer Rubin opined OTDI 2019: “This is a White House that survives on untruths, and to confess to untruthfulness is to destabilize the rickety scaffolding that keeps the presidency from collapsing entirely.”
Rubin added: “A loyal staffer says anything to advance Trump’s interests, no matter how preposterous or objectively false; the only sin is to apologize for a lie.”
When Sanders mercifully left the White House, Bess Levin, in Vanity Fair, recounted some of her biggest whoppers. Here’s a starter kit of examples:
Sanders claimed that Trump had created far more jobs for African-Americans than Obama had. In reality, Obama created four times as many as Trump did.
Sanders insisted, with a straight face, that her boss had never “promoted or encouraged violence.” Recall, this is a man who has openly encouraged supporters to hit others, and who has repeatedly published pics of himself violently attacking enemies.
She also insisted that women who came forward to accuse Trump of sexual misdeeds, or hush-money payments, were liars…even though Trump had already admitted to some. Multiple juries have since disagreed with her assessment of the “truth.”
Her most pernicious lie, though, was one she invented herself. After Trump had received the electoral help from the Russians, the FBI started to investigate. Trump retaliated (as he admitted later) by firing the FBI boss, Jim Comey. Yet Sanders claimed Trump fired him because FBI agents were unhappy with Comey. Obviously it was nonsense, but it gave MAGA fans a reason to be distrustful of the U.S. government--and they continue to be mistrustful to this day.
As Vanity Fair concluded: “It appears that the only known instance of Sanders telling the truth involved a nine-year-old nicknamed ‘Pickle’ writing a letter to the White House about how much he likes Donald Trump. But her track record was so bad that initially, no one believed her.”
Admittedly, though, constantly covering for Trump isn't an easy job. A few of Sanders' successors got so weary of the lies and the scandals and the ineptitude that they finally gave up on holding regular press briefings all together. As if the boss were dictator of Russia rather than president of the United States.
By the way, serving as a fiction-inventing propagandist for Trump is apparently a noble thing to some people, as Sanders was later elected to be the governor of Arkansas.
Dive Deeper
The Post says it comes from the top
Vanity Fair compiled a partial list of her lies