I’d laugh if this little nugget of information weren’t so amazingly hypocritical. It takes quite a bit of cajones for a White House Press Corps reporter to blame President Trump’s Press Secretary Sarah Sanders Huckabee for her own personal security expenses. Yet, that is exactly what  White House correspondent April Ryan did in a recent interview. I’ll note the irony here, too, of a reporter becoming the story, though this is more and more common now.

First, let me remind you of some of April Ryan’s past behavior while she carries out her duties as a reporter for American Urban Radio Networks and as a contributor for CNN. She famously yelled a question to President Trump – “Are you a racist?” after he made the sh**hole countries remark and she once asked Sanders if the president has thought about stepping down. And of course, let us not forget the #piegate story I wrote about last year during the holidays. Ryan actually instigated a personal battle with Sanders over pie. How’s that for some serious journalism? (Also, never question a southern woman’s baking skills. It turns out badly for you.)

Now April Ryan claims she is receiving threats, including death threats, and has hired personal security in response. She thinks Sanders should pay for it, too.

“I mean, I’ve had death threats,” said Ryan, a correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks who was named the journalist of the year by the National Association for Black Journalists in 2017. “I’ve had craziness, so I have a real concern . . . Do I have a bodyguard? Yes, I do. Am I paying for it? Yes, I am. And I think [Sanders] should have to pay for it, especially if she’s stirring it up with her boss . . . I did not sign up for this. I was just doing a job.”

Hey, you know who also didn’t “sign up for” death threats and threats to herself and her family? Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She is the first White House Press Secretary to have Secret Service protection and I don’t think she had that in mind when she accepted her position with President Trump. The taxpayers are on the hook for Sanders’ protection, thanks in no small part to the sensational stories the press writes about this administration.

She gave an interview about her current security needs to The Hollywood Reporter. Oh, did I mention Ryan has a book coming out? She’s raising her personal profile because reporters are no longer reporters, they are all stars in their own minds now. Apparently, she is going into Jim Acosta territory over at CNN. She’s ready for her close-up, Mr. DeMille!

On Sept. 1, Rowman & Littlefield will publish her new book, Under Fire: Reporting From the Front Lines of the Trump White House (former Today show co-host Tamron Hall wrote the book’s forward). Ryan is scheduled to promote the book on The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, This Week with George Stephanopoulos‎ and across CNN, the network that employs her as a contributor. (Her main gig is covering the White House and Washington for American Urban Radio Networks.)

She is bravely soldiering on and she’s hoping the book sales will reflect that new martyrdom. (sarcasm) She’s elevated herself to a “dean of the press corps” after  21 years doing that job. (The Hollywood Reporter)

What’s happening is unprecedented. I am a member of the press corps, one of the deans of the press corps now…and I’ve been under attack. And lied on. Treated terribly. And if I don’t tell the story, you won’t get it. So, I’m putting it out there, because people see one side of it. I’m giving you the whole thing…. The way they’ve treated me for asking questions that are fair and logical. They’re still very angry at me for asking the question, “Mr. President, are you a racist?” And that’s why I’m on a list…. Since when is asking a question of a president making you a criminal? Or making you an “enemy of the people”?

The Hollywood Reporter interviewer asks if it’s fair to blame Sanders for simply doing her job. No, Ryan says. “She should be ashamed of herself.”

All of the above. All of the above. She should be ashamed of herself for going out there, saying some of the things that she’s said. She tries to insult my intelligence. And not just my intelligence, the world’s intelligence…. They always have to go back and press-splain, man-splain the president after he says something. Say what you mean, mean what you say. Words mean something, especially when you get to that level.

We even tried to have a reset. I talk about it in my book. She baked a pie. I did not eat the pie. She tried to figure out where we went wrong. But she continues to berate me…. We had dinner, trying to reset, and it just went downhill.

I think it’s above and beyond her duties for Sarah Huckabee Sanders to go to dinner with Ryan. It just further proves Ryan’s pettiness and inability to simply do her job as a professional. She’s behaving as a thin-skinned prima donna and we all know that the press corps doesn’t need any more of that. It’s all about the book sales now.