Sarah Sanders mastered these 5 rhetorical tricks to destroy the White House press briefing [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

CODY FENWICK, ALTERNET
30 JAN 2019 AT 23:40 ET

This week, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders held her first briefing with reporters of the new year. These sessions were once called “daily” briefings, but at this point, they’re not even being held weekly. During her tenure as press secretary, the briefings have become shorter and increasingly rare, leaving the media with fewer formal venues to get direct answers about President Donald Trump’s actions and priorities.

But despite this major disruption in White House press relations, the backlash to the diminished role for briefings has been muffled. While some have voiced their objections to the declining briefings, the issue hasn’t turned into a major crusade, even when they have been comfortable strongly denouncing the administration’s other norm-breaking behaviors.

The reason, it seems, is pretty obvious: Sanders has succeeded in making the press briefings almost entirely useless. Her answers are evasive, false, or meaningless, and they do nothing to keep reporters or the country more informed. It’s often clear that she doesn’t actually have the authority to speak on behalf of the president on central issues, so no one takes her claims all that seriously as it is. She has become masterful at refusing to answer questions, avoiding many of the humiliating pitfalls her predecessor Sean Spicer frequently stumbled into, while rarely committing the White House to any firm position for which it might be held accountable. With such an adept propagandist in charge of press briefings, the fact that they are so rare is hard to complain about; it’s like the old joke about abysmal cafeteria meals: “The food is disgusting, and the portions are too small!”

Here are five of Sanders’ rhetorical strategies to avoid any challenging questions:

1. Plead ignorance

One of Sanders’ go-to response for tough questions — often about the latest outrage the president has engaged in or scandal that has been uncovered — is simply to declare, “I have nothing for you on that.” As long as she has no answer, she can’t be held accountable for anything. And while reporters could keep pressing to try and make a point, there are always other questions and topics that need to be covered in a day, so they move on.

More:
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/01/sarah-sanders-mastered-5-rhetorical-tricks-destroy-white-house-press-briefing/?utm_source=push_notifications