Vitriol, the deviation marks the return of the press briefing of the White House



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In her first appearance behind her iconic 42-day podium, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders did nothing to answer questions about President Donald Trump, administration and scandals. during his long absence.

"I'm not aware of these specific verifications," said Sanders.

Sarah Sanders deviates when asked if Trump calls Democrats & # 39; anti-Jewish & # 39; & # 39;

Nor could it say when the president will install a permanent defense secretary at a time when the United States is at war around the world.

"When the President is ready to make an announcement on this front, he will certainly do it," said Sanders, preceded by Interim Budget Director Russell Vought.

She avoided responding to claims that Trump had attempted to use the Justice Department to block AT & T's merger with Time Warner, CNN's parent company – a possible abuse of power.

"I'm not aware of any conversation about it," she told CNN's Jim Acosta.

But she quickly seized the chance to relaunch controversy over Trump's comment last week that Democrats are an "anti-Jewish party" following critical remarks about supporters of Israel by Muslim Democrat Ilhan Omar from Minnesota.

"Frankly, I think you should ask the Democrats what their position is," Sanders said, seizing the opportunity to deepen the divisions between the Democratic leadership and a Washington neophyte criticized by his party's leaders. .

"I think the real shame in all of this is that Democrats are perfectly capable of coming together and hearing about the fact that they are comfortable tearing babies out of the belly right now. from their mother or kill a baby after birth, "said Sanders, hitting another person. question – abortion – which resonates with Trump's conservative base.

Assault in all directions

Monday's controversial briefing was the latest sign that the White House, without the cushion of a Republican majority in the House, had already launched a total assault aimed at portraying the Democrats as radical and extreme and unable to address the issue. ouster Trump in 2020.

Even in environments formerly worthy of the White House's briefing room, the president is willing to send his subordinates to conceal and induce outrage that seems to be his natural political habitat.

But in a broader sense, Monday's theatrical scene reflected a more general truth about the Trump administration: its allergy to control and its willingness to refuse to deal with scandals of which one could have been fatal previous presidencies.

Sanders is far from being the first White House press officer to take political positions on the podium – Ari Fleischer and Robert Gibbs in recent years have been particularly clever partisan tacticians for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, respectively.

But even in the controversial exchanges between these two ex-members of the campaign and the reporters, there was a sense that a major exercise in democracy and accountability was taking place in which leaders had to at least respond from their acts.

White House press secretaries are civil servants and are paid by taxpayers. Most have at least sought to give the impression that they were an intermediary between the press, the American people and the president – even though this was a custom more respected by the violation than by respect.

This administration makes little sense in this administration – in part because briefings have become so rare – and because the White House seems to mock this belief, it should even claim that it is open to control.

Sanders' briefings are frightening, concise and brief, creating a barely disguised sense of unease between reporters and the administration of a president who has described journalists as enemies of the people.

The fact that Sanders has to respond to Trump's daily venom, which would be considered impresidential by any other administration, but has eased public outrage with its volume, means that she has one of the jobs the more difficult in Washington.

But it can not be denied that she is talented for this job, which requires an unwavering loyalty to her boss and the adoption of her abrasive political methods, even at the risk of losing her own reputation outside the conservative media world.

Love for Sanders

Former Fox News director Bill Shine at the White House

Sanders' own political instinct and his tendency to visibly exasperate journalists with his courage and lack of answers during the information meetings play a role in the administration's claim that he is the victim of an orchestrated campaign. unfair media coverage.

Her theatrical theater is one of the reasons why she has become an extremely popular figure to the right and why her mentions on Twitter vibrate to the heart of the Trump supporters' love.

It is not clear if Monday was a single time or Sanders is committed to a regular briefing schedule. She rightly pointed out that the president himself often answers questions from journalists – although his free working sessions spare him from the formal structure and the following journalists ask him follow-up questions, which offers the best opportunity to ask for accounts.

Sanders' attacks on Democrats on Monday prove that she has assimilated Trump's characteristic tactic of stirring up anger and provoking new controversies in order to evade her own political responsibilities.

With the media seemingly doomed to refute the president's claims about Democrats and Jews, there is no focus on monthly employment figures, nor on Wednesday's condemnation of the former president of M's campaign. Trump, Paul Manafort, nor on the apparently torn diplomacy of North Korea.

Treating the press with contempt is what is selling – after all, shortly after Sanders left the briefing room on Monday, Trump issued a political appeal stating that "traditional media have never been so dishonest as" 39; aujourd & # 39; hui ".

Trump voters are very fond of reporters who prefer to be informed by conservative media and who are willing to accept his advice to rely on him and not the media for facts.

It is also a reflection of Trump's long-standing decision to anchor his presidency on the fervent belief of a political base with no electoral majority but which has helped him to effectively take control of the Republican Party and retain the support of most voters. his constituents.

Monday's meeting took place after the Democrats complained about the tone of Trump's public statements in which he declared that "the Democrats have become an anti-Israel party, they have become an anti-Jewish party, and they have become the main anti-Jewish party. is so bad. "

It was an inflammatory pretense to be made about a party whose recent presidents, including Obama and Bill Clinton, have expressed their respect for Israel, and whose congressional leaders, such as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, have a long tradition of support. for the predominantly Jewish state.

According to exit polls, 79 percent of Jewish voters supported Democratic candidates in November's mid-term elections.

Meanwhile, Trump, whose daughter Ivanka and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are fervent Jews, has been accused of fomenting anti-Semitism himself with an announcement of the 2016 closing campaign featuring images. Jewish personalities such as George Soros, then federal. Reserve President Janet Yellen and financier Lloyd Blankfein also warned of the threat of "global special interests".

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