Sarah Huckabee Sanders Reportedly Refused to Defend Trump’s Family Separations on TV

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused to appear on television to defend President Donald Trump‘s zero tolerance immigration policy that resulted in family separations, according to a new report.

Gabriel Sherman has a new piece out in Vanity Fair detailing Trump’s nascent 2020 election campaign, and it reveals the turmoil that plagued his administration after he implemented the immigration policy that led to a crisis of family separations.

Amidst the chaos of shifting explanations for why the policy was in place — as film crews descended on border facilities where children were detained, separated from their parents — Sanders was apparently incapable of defending the policy.

“Sanders refused to appear on-camera to defend the separations, according to two sources close to her,” Sherman reported.

First lady Melania Trump apparently also had serious issues with the president’s move (which he blamed on Democrats.)

“Melania Trump issued a rare statement critiquing her husband’s policy without first clearing it with White House officials,” one source told Sherman. “[She] even asked her press secretary to call a Trump surrogate and thank him after he derided the policy on CNN.”

Read the full report here.

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