Sarah Huckabee Sanders Named White House Press Secretary

New communications director Anthony Scaramucci makes the announcement

Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be the new White House press secretary following the resignation of Sean Spicer, new communications director Anthony Scaramucci announced on Friday.

Huckabee Sanders was the deputy press secretary under Spicer and started to take some of his responsibilities in recent weeks.

Spicer resigned on Friday morning and will stay on through August to help with the transition. He made press briefings must-see TV early in the first months of the Trump administration but he hadn’t conducted an on-camera briefing since June 20. Huckabee Sanders had taken the podium more recently.

Huckabee Sanders would lose the deputy title and take over as permanent press secretary, Scaramucci announced during the first post-Spicer press briefing hours after news of the shakeup broke.

Scaramucci wouldn’t commit to regularly televised press briefings by Huckabee Sanders because he wants to discuss it with her first. He said it feels like there is a bias in the media and wants to work with Huckabee Sanders to fairly articulate the president’s message.

From the first day of the Trump presidency when Spicer berated reporters for their coverage of inauguration turnout, his combative press briefings were must-see TV. Melissa McCarthy famously satirized him in “Saturday Night Live” sketches in which he rode a podium like a tank through a battlefield and the now-former press secretary emerged as a household name.

Huckabee Sanders will take over immediately, but it remains to be seen if she will emerge as a household name like Spicer did.

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