I watched the briefing today. Not as a journalist, but as an academic. A thing I kept asking myself as I listened to Sarah Sanders reply: what kind of speech is this? Who — or what — does she represent? Not for you, maybe, but for me, it is extremely difficult to answer that. 1/
By convention she is supposed to, but in reality she knows she does not speak for the president. He will contradict her on a whim, without realizing that this is a problem. But she does not speak for — or as — herself either. For the world has no interest in what she "thinks." 2/
I finally decided that hers is the voice of an intention. And the intention is Trump's, so that in that sense she is representative. What she represents is the fulfillment of a campaign promise. "We will put these people down for you. We will spit at them the way you want to." 3/
"We will insult them. We will misinform them. We will visit upon them acts of contempt. We have the power and we can do this." Whatever she's saying, that is what she is always doing. And that is why I have said, from the beginning: "Send the interns." pressthink.org/2017/01/send-t… END
