White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said she was not going to engage in a “back and forth” with reporters after she declined to answer questions for a second day related to President Trump’s dictation of a statement about Donald Trump Jr.’s 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer.
“I’m not going to go into detail and go into a back and forth. I know that you guys would love to engage on matters of conversations between the special counsel and the outside counsel, but we are purposefully walled off and I’m not going to comment on the outside counsel,” Sanders told reporters during Tuesday’s White House press briefing.
Sanders faced questions about the misleading statement after the president’s lawyers revealed in a January memo to special counsel Robert Mueller, published by the New York Times on Saturday, the president dictated a statement last year about Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower.
The White House press secretary told reporters when asked at the time whether Trump was involved in the drafting of the statement that the president did not have anything to do with it.
On Tuesday, Sanders was asked about her comments made from the podium, but refused to address them. Instead, she accused reported of trying to “engage me in a conversation about matters dealing with the outside counsel” and reiterated she would not discuss conversations between Trump’s legal team and the special counsel.
“I work day in and day out, and I believe frankly with the majority of you here in the room,” she said. “I think you all know I’m an honest person who works extremely hard to provide you with accurate information at all times. I’m going to continue to do that but I’m not going to engage on matters that deal with the outside counsel.”
When asked about whether the American people should trust the information coming from the White House, Sanders turned her attack to the media.
“I don’t know how many times I have to address this, but I work every single day to give you accurate and up-to-day information, and I’m going to continue to do that,” she said. “Frankly, I think my credibility is probably higher than the media’s. I think in large part that’s because you guys spend more of your time focused on attacking the president instead of reporting the news.
“I think that if you spent a little bit more time reporting the news instead of trying to tear me down, you might actually see we’re working hard to provide you good information and trying to provide that same good information to the American people.”
