Chelsea Handler Chides Sarah Huckabee Sanders for ‘Lying’ While ‘Dressed Up’

Comedian Chelsea Handler slammed White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders for “lying” while “dressed up” after the White House press briefing on Wednesday afternoon.

At the briefing, Sanders clashed with several reporters and defended President Donald Trump on a number of issues, including his meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday and the administration’s subsequent efforts to clarify what Trump said at the meeting. It was the first briefing that Sanders gave since July 2.

In a tweet after the press briefing, Handler wrote, “When it comes to lying, nobody gets more dressed up to do it than Sarah Huckabee Sanders.”

Handler, who campaigned for Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election, has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration.

During the briefing, Sanders defended Trump after he was asked earlier in the morning by a pool reporter if Russia was still targeting the United States, and he responded “no” to the question. Sanders told reporters that this response had been his way of indicating that he was not going to respond to any questions from reporters.

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MSNBC reporter Hallie Jackson pushed back on her defense of the president, telling Sanders, “[this is] the second time in three days that the president or the White House has come out and reversed what he has said. Why should this president have any credibility?”

In response, Sanders said, “Actually, I’m interpreting what the president said. I’m not reversing it.”

Earlier in the briefing, Sanders defended the president’s track record of being “tougher on Russia than anybody,” adding, “to say anything otherwise is just not true.”

Sanders also pounced on the media, accusing members of the press of spreading a viral photo on Tuesday of a redheaded woman in the Oval Office — who was accused of being Russian spy Maria Butina. “There was massive media hysteria yesterday over confusion between that individual and a White House staffer,” Sanders said. “This shows, frankly, the outrageousness and the desire to find the negative in everything this president does, just because somebody was red-headed they were accused of being a spy for Russia.” She concluded: “You guys need to take a step back.”

See other reactions to the press briefing below.

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