Sarah Sanders ends her opening statement by expressing condolences to the Tibbetts family. "Sadly, the individual believed to be responsible for the murder is an illegal immigrant."
Sarah Sanders says Trump "did nothing wrong" over the payments over which Cohen pleaded guilty. "Just because MIchael Cohen made a plea deal doesn't mean that implicates the president on anything."
Asked if Trump is now planning to pardon Manafort, Sarah Sanders says: "The Manafort case doesn't have anything to do with the president."
Sarah Sanders introduces what I think is a new defence, saying twice that "no charges" have been filed against Trump. Interesting because it's likely that no charges will ever be filed while he's in office no matter what investigators find.
Sanders asked if Trump is worried about what Cohen might say: "I don't think the president's concerned at all. He knows he did nothing wrong and that there was no collusion."
Asked why Trump is cheering on a felon for not co-operating with prosecutors, Sanders says, "The Manafort case doesn't involve the president...it has nothing to do with the White House. The president has expressed his views." (This is extremely non-useful.)
Asked when Trump "learned" of the payments to McDougal and Daniels, and whether there are any other payments to women, Sanders refuses to answer, refers the media to Trump's outside lawyer.
Asked if the fact that Trump's hiring of felons violated his pledge to hire "the best people," Sanders says, "The president has employed thousands of people in his lifetime and had incredible successes...He's the president of the United States, I think he's doing quite well."
Asked what the president meant when he told Reuters he could "run" the Mueller investigation if he wanted to, Sanders says words that do not address the question.
Sanders refused to answer, but with all people in Trump's orbit, especially Trump himself, we need more fact-finding questions like these.
