White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders apparently believes she’s on the front line of a battle with the enemy. Because despite numerous opportunities and considerable urging, she refused to say that the press is not “the enemy of the people.” Given several openings to make that statement in today’s press appearance, she instead … attacked the press.
Acosta: I want to ask you about Ivanka Trump’s statement that the press is not the enemy of the people. And she asked you whether or not the press is the enemy of the people. You read off a laundry list of your concerns about the press and things that you think are misreported, but you did not say that the press is not the enemy of the people. I think it would be a good thing if you were to say right here, at this briefing, that the press, the people who are gathered in this room right now, the people who are doing their jobs every day asking questions of officials like the ones you brought forward earlier are not the enemy of the people. I think we deserve that.
Sanders: The president has made his position known, I also think it’s ironic … it’s ironic, Jim, that you and the media attack the president for his rhetoric, when they frequently lower the level of conversation in this country. Repeatedly, repeatedly the media resorts to personal attacks without any content other than to incite anger.
Watch it for yourself in the video below.
Sanders continued, saying that CNN had attacked her personally, saying that she should be “harassed as a life sentence” and that she “should be choked.” She then returned to complaining about Michelle Wolf’s jokes at the correspondent’s dinner … but what Sanders never did was get around to saying that the press is not the enemy of the people.
Because she clearly believes that they are. And she also believes that everything is about her.
“Enemy of the people” is a phrase that goes back to the French Revolution, where the term was applied to those condemned to death. The term was used extensively in Soviet propaganda during the 20th century, again often in association with political enemies being exiled or executed. The phrase “enemies of the people” also appears in Nazi propaganda, often as a description of Jews.