White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders blasted what she called “massive media hysteria” after a redheaded White House staffer in an Oval Office photograph was misidentified as an alleged Russian spy.
A reporter for the news outlet Mic tweeted Tuesday that Maria Butina, the women arrested Sunday on charges of conspiracy against the U.S., visited the Oval Office last year during a visit by Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.
“This is Maria Butina – arrested for being a Russian spy – in the Oval Office with Trump,” the reporter tweeted, with a photo showing a red-haired young woman in the background.
The supposed Butina actually was Cari Lutkins from the White House National Security Council, the Mic reporter said after the original claim was widely circulated.
“There was massive media hysteria yesterday over confusion between that individual and a White House staffer, which I think shows, frankly, the outrageousness and the just desire to find the negative in everything that this president does,” Sanders said Wednesday at the daily White House press briefing.
“Just because somebody was redheaded, they were accused of being some sort of spy for Russia. I think that this has gotten totally out of control. You guys need to take a little bit of a step back, slow down, and quit going after the Trump administration on every single thing that takes place,” she said.
Media: There’s no reason for anyone to hate us
Senior political reporter for Mic: Hold my beer pic.twitter.com/EXrAAExlTZ
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) July 17, 2018
Sanders invoked the mistaken identity after being asked about Trump’s recent contradictory statements about alleged Russian meddling in U.S. elections.
Trump had said Monday during a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin that he doubted Russia intervened in the 2016 election. But on Tuesday, he said that he had misspoken.
Then on Wednesday, when asked ahead of a Cabinet meeting whether Russia was still targeting the U.S., Trump said “no,” prompting a number of news reports. But Sanders said at the Wednesday briefing hours later that his use of the word “no” had been misunderstood, and that in fact he said “no” because he was refusing to take questions.
Sanders’ harangue of journalists included a reporter asking if she had a response to “the indictment” — though it was unclear if the journalist was referring to the indictment last week of 12 Russian officials for allegedly hacking Democratic emails, or the arrest of Butina.
“I said we are looking at it, but this is a lengthy process. We are going through it. However, I do have a response to the fact that simply because somebody had the same hair color they were accused of being a Russian spy by a large number of people frankly in this room,” she said.
