Sarah Huckabee Sanders Really Went for It

In a short but storied career of amazing performances as White House Press Secretary, today's display by Sarah Huckabee Sanders was really something. She mentioned Hillary Clinton a lot. I lost track around the ten millionth mention of Clinton's name. And she was still going for the Russia Reversal narrative, even after George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty. Wow.

Here's a representative clip, for anyone who had the good fortune to miss it:

I’ve lost track of how many times Sarah Huckabee Sanders has mentioned Hillary Clinton today. https://t.co/yTgjbjblk1

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) October 30, 2017

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: But look, today's announcement has nothing to do with the president, has nothing to do with the president's campaign, or campaign activity. Ah, the real collusion scandal, as we've said several times before, has everything to do with the Clinton campaign, Fusion GPS, and Russia. There's clear evidence of the Clinton campaign colluding with Russian intelligence to spread disinformation and smear the president, to influence the election. We've been saying from day one there's been no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion, and nothing in the indictment today changes that at all.

REPORTER 1: But the George Papadopoulos indictment is about the campaign. It is specifically about the campaign.

HUCKABEE SANDERS: It has nothing to do with the activities of the campaign. It has to do with his failure to tell the truth. That doesn't have anything to do with the campaign or the campaign's activities.

REPORTER 2: But it is the clearest evidence yet of ties between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, so—

HUCKABEE SANDERS: Again, there are no activities or official capacity in which the Trump campaign was engaged in any of these activities. Most of them took place well before the campaign ever even existed.

Sure. That last bit is accurate regarding the charges against Manafort and Gates, but the reporter was referencing Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about incidents that took place during the campaign. So the best the Trump administration seems to have is to suggest he wasn't acting in an official capacity and wasn't even really part of the campaign. Except:

Sanders repeatedly says Papadopoulos was "a volunteer on the campaign." WH has also used this claim with Mike Flynn. https://t.co/GosTfAQT9j

— Marina Fang (@marinafang) October 30, 2017

And then there's this: Asserting Papadopoulos wasn't an official member of the campaign is a bad strategy — for a lot of reasons (including that it's patently false), not least of which is that it's the sort of claim that induces rats to rat even harder.

Anyway. It was bad. And I suspect, and hope, that things are only going to get worse for Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

I don't know whose eyebrows were more expressive: Sarah Huckabee Sanders' giving that press conference, or mine watching it.

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 30, 2017