ABC News’ Jon Karl Hammers Sanders Over Trump’s Weekend Tweets: ‘He Hasn’t Even Called Out Putin!’

The White House held its first on-camera press briefing, and considering how much has happened since then, it was obvious that White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was in for a grilling from the press corps. And they did not disappoint.

Early on, ABC News’ Jonathan Karl peppered Sanders with questions regarding President Donald Trump’s weekend tweetstorm in which the president aired grievances about the Russia probe and seemingly tied the FBI’s attention on the investigation to last week’s horrific school shooting in Florida.

“The president doesn’t really think that the FBI failed to stop the Parkland shooter because it was too involved with the Russia investigation, does he?” Karl asked Sanders.

After Sanders tried to brush off Karl by saying that the shooting was “the cause of a deranged individual” and the sole responsibility is on the shooter, Karl shot back and wondered aloud if the president sent out a “mistweet.”

“I think he’s making the point that we would like our FBI agencies to not be focused on something that clearly is a hoax in terms of investigating the Trump campaign and its involvement,” Sanders responded.

Karl pushed back and wanted to know if they agreed that the evidence was there that Russia meddled in the election. A clearly flustered Sanders noted that she was saying the hoax was that the campaign colluded with Russia.

Karl moved on to asking the press secretary what the president and White House plan to do about the Russian interference, bringing up the fact that National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster has called the proof of meddling “incontrovertible.”

Sanders attempted to note that the interference began under the Obama administration and said that there will be consequences under the Trump administration, Karl appeared to have enough.

“He hasn’t even called out Putin!” Karl exclaimed. “He criticized Obama, the FBI and didn’t even criticize Vladimir Putin.”

The press secretary claimed that Trump has been tougher on Russia in one year than Obama was in eight years combined while stating that the president has rebuilt the military and imposed sanctions.

Watch the clip above, via CNN.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona

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