“We give the very best information that we have at the time.”
That was White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ response when ABC reporter Jonathan Karl asked her during Thursday’s press briefing how the American people could trust a president and White House that “show what appears to be a blatant disregard for the truth.”
It was a line she repeated again and again in her 17 minutes of taking questions from reporters in the briefing, the first since it was revealed that President Donald Trump had repaid Michael Cohen the $130,000 in hush money the lawyer delivered to porn star Stormy Daniels — knowledge of which both Trump and Sanders had previously denied.
Not just in Thursday’s briefing, but overall, “the best information we have at the time” has become something of a go-to line for Sanders — her version of apparently throwing up her arms in the face of a president who has proved not only impulsive and prone to changing his mind, but who has exhibited an unprecedented propensity for falsehoods. As his official spokesperson, Sanders’ performance in Tuesday’s briefing left some reporters further questioning not just the president’s credibility, but also that of his press secretary and the entire White House.
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