Sarah Sanders tells Chris Wallace People ‘Misunderstand’ Trump: He’s ‘Not Fighting for the Wall’

By Tommy ChristopherJan 6th, 2019, 10:53 am
 

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made an odd attempt to distance Trump from the central issue surrounding the government shutdown by insisting that Trump’s demand for border wall funds isn’t actually about the border wall.

On Sunday morning’s edition of Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace pressed Sanders hard on the shutdown, particularly on Trump’s promise to leave the government closed for “years” if necessary.”

“The president meant what he said, that he is prepared to fight for the wall, to continue the shut down for months or even years?” Wallace asked.

“Well, I think that’s one of the things that people misunderstand,” Sanders said. “The president’s not fighting for the wall, he’s fighting for the protection of American citizens, but he cannot…”

“But he wants the wall to do that,” Wallace interrupted.

“Absolutely he wants the wall, and he wants a number of other things,” Sanders replied, but then extolled the virtues of the wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for.

Sanders’ odd insistence that the shutdown is not about the wall is similar to one of the more bizarre moments from this week’s cabinet meeting photo op. “We’re in a shutdown because Democrats refuse to fund the border security. They try and make it like it’s just about the wall,” Trump said, but then quickly added “And it is about the wall.”

Wallace continued to press Sanders, asking her why Trump wouldn’t reopen the government instead of “hold those hundreds of thousands of federal workers and the services they provide hostage?”

“Look, we’re not holding anybody hostage,” Sanders insisted, just seconds after telling Wallace that Trump was “absolutely” serious about leaving the government closed for years.

Watch the clip above, from Fox.

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