If Sarah Huckabee Sanders doesn't know anything, why keep asking her?

[DonViejo]

By Jennifer Rubin May 8 at 1:30 PM

Asked whether her boss paid hush money to multiple women, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, “I’m not aware of any other activity, but I would refer you to Rudy Giuliani to respond to any of those questions or anybody else on the president’s outside counsel.” Asked essentially the same question, she replied, “Again, I’m not aware of anything like that. But I would refer to the president’s outside counsel.” How does President Trump feel about Rudy Giuliani? “I didn’t speak with him specifically about his feelings about it, but certainly feels that he’s an added member — added valued member to his outside special counsel,” she answered. Will Trump plead the Fifth? Talk to the “outside special counsel,” she said. (I think she meant Trump’s outside attorneys.) Did Trump aides hire an Israeli firm to find dirt on Obama officials who worked on the Iran deal? “I’m not aware of anything on that front,” she said.

Not that I’m aware of. I haven’t spoken to the president. Talk to the lawyers. She might as well just say, “Who the heck knows?” or “Ya got me!” Sanders has apparently figured out not to take to the bank — or the press room — what Trump tells her. She seems to have learned that unless she wants to be seen as a liar, she’s simply going to have to weave and bob, and keep her head down and her lips pursed. Perhaps the media should start asking her:

Are you still asking Trump about these issues, or have you given up?

If you cannot say one way or another on these questions, are you saying it’s within the realm of possibility that Trump paid off other women, will plead the Fifth, etc.?

How can you do your job if you do not ask the president about important matters and convey with confidence his responses to the American people?

Are you concerned that you personally will be implicated in a conspiracy to obstruct justice?

Have you consulted counsel as to what you can no longer say definitively to the media?

Looking back on your interactions with members of the media, did you wittingly or unwittingly mislead them? Will you come clean on those instances and correct the record?

Why should we believe what you say?

Last August you said, “I don’t think it’s appropriate to lie from the podium or any other place.” Does that go for the president as well? Is it appropriate to convey someone else’s lies

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2018/05/08/if-sarah-huckabee-sanders-doesnt-know-anything-why-keep-asking-her/

[annabanana]

1. I honestly don't understand why anyone shows up at those pressers.

No information actually comes out of them. She should face an empty room. There should be a boycott by all the major media outlets.

[dogknob]

6. First Rule of Media Jobs:

There is always someone younger, prettier and cheaper willing to take your job.

[DFW]

2. Same reason they kept asking Ron Ziegler questions.

Even if they know they'll only get the runaround, it's a televised runaround (nowadays with internet clips to boot). If the president is a big fat zero, his press secretary will either have to lie or be a big fat zero as well. It serves a purpose, even if it's not the purpose they think it is.

[Hekate]

7. This

[BigmanPigman]

3. Keith Olbermann said that the press should boycott the news conferences

and not play in the moron's game. He said this over a year ago on The Resistance and I agreed back then. It has not improved since he said it, in fact it has gotten worse.

[RockRaven]

4. I don't know why the media

does not make her not knowing the answer to their question the object of their next question.

If she's gonna claim ignorance to dodge a question, drill down on that ignorance claim.

Why doesn't she know?
Did she ask and not receive an answer?
Was she told why she wasn't given an answer?
Who has she talked to about this topic?
Is it because she didn't ask?
Why didn't she ask?
Did she not ask on purpose to be able to claim ignorance?
Did she not ask because she was afraid of making Trump/someone else mad?
etc.

[Grammy23]

5. These people are taught in journalism 101 to ask follow up questions.

If they get a vague or non answer, then it stands to reason the next question should be why don’t you know? Get more detail at least on WHY she has no answer especially since her job is to convey information from the President to the press.

And if that person is not allowed another question, then the next person follows up. Do not let her off the hook. Of course, she probably would just get pissed and stalk off in a huff. Pouty lips and all.