Press Briefing by Press Secretary Sarah Sanders | Eastern North Carolina Now

    He also - even the media has reported that officials have determined that Comey leaked four memos - at least four that we know about - with classified information. I think it's very clear that Comey has a credibility problem.

    The other thing is clear, this is one of the few issues in Washington that both Democrats and Republicans agree on. He's been criticized by the legal community for leaking sensitive information and organizations promoting good government found Comey's leaking grounds for firing.

    Multiple Democrats, including some of the biggest leaders in the Democrat party have also attacked Comey. Minority Leader Pelosi said Comey, was "maybe not in the right job." Senator Schumer said he was, "appalled by what Comey did" and "did not have confidence in him any longer." Senator Bernie Sanders said Comey "acted in an outrageous way." Clinton's running mate, Senator Kaine, said Comey is, "responsible for the lowest moment in the history of the FBI." Even Congresswoman Maxine Waters said Comey has "no credibility." The FBI should be independent and not led by a political hack. Comey's higher loyalty is pretty clear that it's only to himself. If you can get this group of people and others like Mark Meadows and a number of others to agree on something, I think that you'd have to be right.

    Q Sarah, what about the dossier, though? Sarah, what about the dossier? Did he also lie about the dossier in his conversation with President Trump about that?

    MS. SANDERS: The dossier is false opposition research that was funded by the Clinton campaign to attack the President. It was used illegally to justify spying on Americans. And I think that's quite the problem.

    Jim.

    Q Sarah, what about the content of the President's attacks on Jim Comey, your attacks on Jim Comey? Isn't all of that a bit unbecoming of the Presidency of this White House to go after him in such a personal way like that?

    MS. SANDERS: I think it -

    Q Calling him a "slime ball" and a "liar" and a "leaker"?

    MS. SANDERS: I think it's unbecoming for the person that is supposed to be the top law enforcement official in the United States, the person that is supposed to protect the people of this country, to lie and leak classified information, certainly to falsify documents. I think that's a very big problem, and somebody who has created this problem for himself.

    I didn't encourage Jim Comey to go out and do a PR campaign. Congress has asked Jim Comey to come and testify multiple times, of which he's denied being able to do. Yet he found time to sit down with George Stephanopoulos for five hours.

    I think if anybody has created this problem, it's Jim Comey and he should be the one held responsible.

    Q Sarah, if I could just follow up -

    MS. SANDERS: I'm going to keep moving, for the second time.

    Q Other folks had two questions. If I could just -

    MS. SANDERS: Sure.

    Q - ask a second follow-up question because -

    MS. SANDERS: Because it's Friday.

    Q Well, it's Friday, yeah. And you've -

    MS. SANDERS: And you'd probably get really upset, and I don't need that if I did.

    Q No, no, no. Not at all. Not at all. (Laughter.) No, but you've probably seen this tweet. It was a tweet that you posted before the election in 2016: "When you're attacking FBI agents because you're under criminal investigation, you're losing." What do you make of that now? Isn't that -

    MS. SANDERS: The rank-and-file FBI are some of the greatest people in this country. We've repeated that time and time again, and certainly have the full support of this administration. I think that we've been very clear, though, how we feel about some of the leadership at the FBI, particularly James Comey.

    Q But when you go after Comey and Rosenstein and Mueller, doesn't that mean you're losing?

    MS. SANDERS: I did give you two, Jim. I'm going to keep moving. Go ahead.

    Q Following up with that, I mean, one of the themes of Comey's book is the President's "disdain" for the rule of the law and his continued efforts to publicly undermine federal law enforcement officials. So how would you characterize the President's attitude towards the rule of law and things that he said publicly about many of his top federal law enforcement officials?

    MS. SANDERS: The President has a great deal of respect for the rule of law, but the President does not have a lot of respect for people whose sole job is to carry out the law and they leak classified information and they lie to the American public about it.

    Q But it's not just leakers; it's his own Attorney General, it's his own Deputy Attorney General, it's Special Counsel, it's the FBI, it's judges who make decisions that he doesn't like.

    MS. SANDERS: I'm sorry, I'm not - what was the question?

    Q There's a whole list of federal law enforcement officials that he has undermined. It's not just people who have proven to leak information.

    MS. SANDERS: The President hasn't undermined them in any capacity. Just because he calls out things that he finds to be problematic or concerning, I think that he should do that. If members of the FBI are leaking classified information, the President should absolutely call that to question.

    You guys spend hours upon hours every single day praising Jim Comey, propping him up, giving him the biggest platform. We shouldn't be praising him; we should be putting him down, we should be taking him off of air, instead of giving him minute after minute.

    This country has a lot of real problems. We should be talking about the economy. We should talk about Syria. We should talk about the drug crisis. But instead, we're going to talk about Jim Comey. You guys will cover it endlessly, all day today, all day tomorrow, and my guess is every day next week with very little time given to the issues that people care about.

    So the President has every right to call out that individual that you guys are propping up, and say that there are problems and that we should be concerned about it.

    Charlie.

    Q Thank you, Sarah. This morning, James Comey admitted that he didn't tell the President about the political source -

    MS. SANDERS: I'm sorry. Can you speak up?

    Q This morning, James Comey said that he didn't inform the President of the political source of the dossier. Was the President surprised to hear that? Did Director Comey ever tell him about the sourcing of the political dossier against him?

    MS. SANDERS: I'm not sure about that specific conversation, but I know that it's been documented many times over now that the dossier is false opposition research funded by the Clinton campaign and used to attack the President. I think -

    Q And a second question, because it's Friday. Did the President speak to former Vice President Dick Cheney about the Scooter Libby pardon either before or after it -

    MS. SANDERS: I'm not aware of any conversations on that.

    John.

    Q Yeah. Thank you, Sarah. Three Republican state senators from Missouri wrote the President yesterday saying that the embattled Governor Eric Greitens should resign from office. He has serious charges of sexual abuse against him, faces impeachment, and refuses to resign. They concluded that, as a former Navy SEAL, he would salute and resign if his Commander-in-Chief asked him to. Did the President receive the letter? What is his response? And will he ask Governor Greitens to step down?

    MS. SANDERS: I don't have an official response at this time, but it's certainly something that is very concerning and something that we're taking very seriously. And I'll keep you updated as we have something.

    Sarah.

    Q Thank you, Sarah. So, concerning the summit with Prime Minister Abe next week in Florida, does the President plan to push for a bilateral free trade agreement with Japan?

    MS. SANDERS: I'm not going to get ahead of the President's conversations with Prime Minister Abe, but trade will certainly be something that is discussed, as well as the ongoing conversations around North Korea.

    Q Sarah, does the President have another NSC meeting today on Syria?

    MS. SANDERS: I'm sorry?

    Q Will the President be having another NSC meeting today on Syria?

    MS. SANDERS: There is another national security meeting later this afternoon at the deputies' level.

    Ayesha.

    Q Thanks. I wanted to ask about the pardoning process. It seems like we've had these three pardons; they all were somewhat high-profile or had gotten media attention. How is the President deciding when to take action on a case? I mean, with Arpaio, he hadn't been sentenced yet; the Scooter Libby case was very old. So how are you deciding when to take action on these cases? And can a normal person who feels like they've been unjustly convicted, can they get their case to the White House? I mean, there's a Justice Department process, but it seems like the President is taking special interest in certain cases.

    MS. SANDERS: Again, the President has exercised constitutional authority, and he determines when and how he's going to use that when it comes to the pardon process. He looks at each one individually, and makes a decision, and we make that announcement.

    Nadia.

    Q Thank you, Sarah. The OPCW is sending inspectors to Syria. Do you think this is a futile exercise, since you already have the evidence that actually they have chemical weapons?

    MS. SANDERS: Once again, we are confident in the intelligence that we have and in the fact that we know that Syria is responsible for these actions.

    I'll take one last question. Brian.

    Q Thanks, Sarah. I'll do two. One on Syria and one on the Department of Justice. On Syria, the President has publicly said that he wants to get out of Syria. Has this strike changed his mind on that? And is he considering other options, other than a plan to pull out U.S. forces from Syria? And if you could just -

    MS. SANDERS: I'm sorry, what was the last part?

    Q Is he considering other options other than a long-term strategy to get U.S. forces out of Syria?

    MS. SANDERS: I don't have any additional changes to policy in Syria at this time. And in terms of options, all of our options are on the table, and we're continuing to look at those and we'll make an announcement then.

    Q And so I have a question about the Department of Justice. What does the President have to say to Republican lawmakers who believe that firing Mueller would be "suicide," as Grassley has said, or firing Rosenstein could be the end of the presidency for Donald Trump, as Lindsey Graham has said?

    MS. SANDERS: I'm not going to get into hypothetical situations. The President has taken no action on that front, and I'm not going to get into a back-and-forth on hypotheticals.

    Q Does he have any response for Republican lawmakers who are counseling him not to take an action like that?

    MS. SANDERS: As with a number of issues, the President talks to a lot of different lawmakers on a number of topics. He's going to continue consulting with them, not just on this, but on some very big issues that our country is facing, and that's what his focus is actually on.

    Thanks so much, guys. Happy Friday.

    END

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