Sarah Sanders is giving a speech-like statement on the Pittsburgh massacre that one might usually have expected a president to give.
Trump is going to Pittsburgh tomorrow, Sanders says. She choked up when talking about Trump's Jewish family.
Sanders is attacking the media as "outrageous" for supposedly blaming Trump for the pipe bombs. Says "you can't stop putting the responsibility of individuals on anybody but the individual who carries out the crime."
Sanders has gone from sombre mode to attack mode very quickly, scolding a reporter over a question about Trump's continued attacks on the media and such.
Asked if Trump has done enough to denounce white nationalism, Sanders says, "The president has denounced racism, hatred and bigotry in all forms on a number of occasions."
Asked about Bolsonaro's bigotry and pro-dictatorship sentiments, Sanders says, "We promote human rights all over the world." She says they want to keep having a good relationship with Brazil, and "we'll see what happens from there."
I messed up this quote: it's "you can't START putting the responsibility of individuals on anybody but the individual who carries out the crime," not "you can't STOP."
Asked about Trump's disparaging language about people, like "Crooked Hillary," Sanders describes this as "drawing contrasts," as in, "The president's going to continue to draw contrasts."
Asked why Trump is calling journalists America's enemies rather than reserving that phrase for America's actual enemies, Sanders says: "The president's not referencing all media. He's talking about the growing amount of fake news that exists in the country."
Goaded by Jim Acosta to name the news outlets that are US "enemies," Sanders eventually says "irresponsible" of CNN to "blame responsibility of a pipe bomb that was not sent by the president...for those heinous acts. I think that is outrageous and I think it's irresponsible."
Asked why Trump doesn't plan to call the targets of the pipe bombs, Sanders says he spoke to NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo (who was not a target, though he initially said he got some suspicious package) and then says, "There aren't any plans for other calls."
The focus of this Sanders "briefing" is to yell at the media for being mean to the president. She says it's "sad and divisive" how negative the media is.
After denouncing the media again, Sanders walks out. We might have to change the noun used to describe these gatherings - that was more like a White House scolding than a White House briefing.
