On Tuesday, President Trump fired off a tweet that seemingly insinuated something untoward and sexually suggestive about Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York), who had previously called for him to resign over his many sexual harassment and assault allegations. The criticism for Trump’s language was quick and fierce, but during the daily White House Press Briefing, Sarah Sanders defended the tweet with some truly impressive mental gymnastics.
The press secretary was asked by CNN’s White House correspondent, April Ryan, if Trump owed Gillibrand an apology for the tweet since it appeared to contain inappropriate “sexual innuendos.” Sanders’s answer was, unsurprisingly, that he did not. “I think only if your mind was in the gutter would you have read it that way, so no,” she said before attempting to move to another reporter’s question. Ryan, meanwhile, was unimpressed.
After the reporter had collected her thoughts, she managed to ask a followup question about how Trump’s tweet was open to interpretation. “He’s obviously talking about political, partisan games that people often play and the broken system that he’s talked about repeatedly,” said Sanders. “This isn’t new, this isn’t a new sentiment, this isn’t new terminology. He’s used it several times before. As I said a few minutes ago, he’s used it several times before referencing men of both parties in fact. I think that there if you look back at the past comment’s he’s made, it was very clear was his reference was.”