When Sarah Huckabee Sanders left her position as White House press secretary six months ago, Donald Trump gave her a glowing review, saying she was “a very special person with extraordinary talents, who has done an incredible job.” He was, of course, lying.
Sanders did not do an incredible job during the 23 months she served as press secretary. In fact, under her tenure, White House press briefings—which historically have served the purpose of allowing presidents to answer questions from the American public—became nonexistent, in part because of her distant relationship with the truth, and the ridicule she received from the White House press corps. As the New York Times notes in a recent profile on Sanders:
She presided over punishing Jim Acosta of CNN by suspending his White House access. She phased out the daily press briefings that in recent history have been the main way presidents answer to the public. Her legacy would be “defending the indefensible and not being truthful with the American people,” David Axelrod, a former top adviser to President Barack Obama and a CNN contributor, once said.
But because former members of the Trump administration have this weird ability to fail upward, Sanders now has her eye on taking the governor’s seat in Arkansas in 2023—and she is doing so with Trump’s full encouragement and blessing.
“I hope she decides to run for Governor of Arkansas — she would be fantastic. Sarah, thank you for a job well done!” Trump tweeted in June when he announced she would be leaving the White House.
The governor’s mansion is not unfamiliar territory for Sanders. Her father, Mike Huckabee, served as governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. Sanders told the Times she believes she has “been called” to take up the mantle.
“There are two types of people who run for office,” she told the Times. “People that are called and people that just want to be a senator or governor. I feel like I’ve been called.”
We don’t know who is calling Sanders to run for office, but it would appear that her base is equally as clueless as her former boss. They believe she has been wrongly persecuted and she didn’t so much lie as offend people by telling the “truth.” At least that’s what one woman told the Times.
Carla Shelton, who came to hear Sanders speak at an event in Hot Springs, Ark., last week told the Times, “The main thing I like about her is her honesty. She got a bad rap because people are offended that she does tell the truth. I’m 100 percent behind her.”
Welp.
For her part, Sanders seems to already have the talking points down. She worked her crowd into a lather discussing how “chaos” would ensue if Democrats “take guns out of our homes” and force “taxpayer-funded abortion on demand, anytime.”
The Times reports that she was “swarmed” by the crowd after her speech.
Sanders reflected on her time working in the Trump administration, and said she was “attacked for everything, not just my performance.” She said she was called a “fat soccer mom,” her children were threatened, her life was threatened—but none of that bothered her as much as being called a “liar” did. That was just one thing she could not abide.
Maybe try not to be a liar then?
Sanders was called out after she admitted under oath that when she claimed at a press briefing that “countless members of the F.B.I.” had confided in her that they had lost confidence in James Comey, it was a “slip of the tongue.” “Slip of the tongue” is liar speak for “I just got caught in a big ass lie.”
Sanders has until Labor Day 2021 to make the decision as to whether or not she will officially run for governor of her home state.
In the meantime, she plans to help with campaign events for Donald Trump.
Because even in life after the Trump administration, Sanders is doing her best Tammy Wynette and standing by her man.
Wonder how many lies she will tell while doing so.