Sarah Sanders says CNN's April Ryan has called for her to 'be decapitated'
Sarah Sanders on Monday said CNN analyst April Ryan had reached “a new low” by calling for “lopping the heads off” of discredited Trump administration officials, including Sanders.
The White House press secretary, who has frequently accused the media of not recognizing President Trump’s jokes, took Ryan’s remark as a literal demand for her decapitation.
“Look, I’ve had reporters say a lot of things about me,” Sanders said on “Fox & Friends.” “They’ve said I should be choked, they said I should deserve a lifetime of harassment but certainly never had somebody say that I should be decapitated. This takes us to a new low even for the liberal media.”
After the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, which said Sanders had invented her account of “countless” FBI agents approving of Trump’s firing of FBI director James Comey in 2017, Ryan said the White House spokeswoman had lost all credibility.
“She outright lied, and the people, the American people can’t trust her, they can’t trust what’s said from the president’s mouthpiece,” Ryan said Thursday. “Therefore, she should be let go, she should be fired.”
Ryan added: “When there is a lack of credibility there, you have to start, and start lopping the heads off. It’s ‘Fire Me Thursday’ or ‘Fire Me Good Friday.’ She needs to go.”
Sanders responded on “Fox & Friends.”
“I think it just once again proves why this journalist isn’t taken seriously,” she said. “I think our team needs to remain focused on how we keep pushing those things that actually help Americans, and not engage in these petty fights with journalists that, again, shouldn’t be taken seriously and I don’t think are taken seriously and are just looking for a couple more minutes on TV. And, frankly, I feel sorry for them because they have lost the collusion battle, and now they’re looking for anything they can hang on to keep this story alive.”
Ryan, in response, posted the full video clip of her comments calling for Sanders to be fired.
Here is the full statement on lack of credibility of @PressSec who admitted under oath that she lied! https://t.co/vi2xUm2WMR
— AprilDRyan (@AprilDRyan) April 22, 2019
The day after Comey was fired, on May 10, 2017, Sanders, then the deputy press secretary, told reporters that she had “heard countless members of the FBI that are grateful and thankful for the president’s decision.”
According to Mueller, Sanders “acknowledged to investigators that her comments were not founded on anything.”
Sanders insisted on Friday that her use of the word “countless” was a “slip of the tongue” made “in the heat of the moment.”
But she repeated the assertion the following day, using the same word, even when pressed by a reporter for details.
“You said now today, and I think you said again yesterday, that you personally have talked to countless FBI officials employees since this happened,” asked Michael Shear of the New York Times.
“Correct,” Sanders replied. “Between email, text messages, absolutely.”
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