White House press secretary Sarah Sanders accused the media Tuesday of being “completely obsessed” with the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
“You guys seem completely obsessed with this,” Sanders told reporters during the White House press briefing. “While there are a lot of other things happening around the country, and frankly a lot of other things that people care a lot more about, the media refuses to cover it, and I think that’s the distraction.”
Sanders was asked about a comment White House chief of staff John Kelly made during an interview with Fox News that aired Monday night. In the interview, Kelly said the probe into Russian meddling is “very distracting” to President Trump.
Sanders went on to suggest that a review of the questions asked during White House press briefings would show reporters asking about the Russia investigation far more than they ask about policies.
“Instead of the focus being constantly on tax cuts and tax reform, my guess is if you look at the records, the questions that I take in here day out have far more to do with an investigation that frankly most Americans don’t care too much about and whole lot less to do with policies that actually impact them,” she said.
Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his former business associate Rick Gates were indicted on 12 counts by a federal grand jury Friday. The charges against Manafort and Gates were the first filed by special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
A former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos, also pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians during an interview with agents in January.
