Former ABC News reporter and White House correspondent Sam Donaldson just shredded Donald Trump and his press secretary, Sarah Sanders.
On Friday’s “AC360,” Donaldson and host Anderson Cooper accused the administration of transparent lying. Donaldson ran through his working relationship with every White House press secretary since John F. Kennedy’s.
“Except for Ron Ziegler, who lied for Richard Nixon, I’ve never seen anything like this with Sarah Sanders,” Donaldson said. “And there’s a difference. Ziegler lied about one thing: the question if the president of the United States was covering up the Watergate burglary.”
Donaldson said if you asked Ziegler a question about policy, he would stick to “what he thought the facts were,” and that those “would often be truthful.”
We’re in a different world now, Donaldson opined.
“Sarah Sanders simply lies about everything, taking a cue from her boss,” Donaldson said. “She’s had a… lifetime achievement Oscar for lying.”
“I don’t know her,” he continued. “I feel a little sorry for her because it’s the boss who does it.”
Later, Donaldson said that Sanders’ “lies” are “more than innocuous — they fester,” and that they serve the public’s “disinterest in learning the truth.”
So yeah, he’s not a fan.
Watch Donaldson’s CNN appearance below.
President Trump claims he's the most transparent president in history, but the White House has not held a press briefing in a record-breaking number of days
"Sarah Sanders simply lies about everything, taking a cue from her boss." – Former White House correspondent Sam Donaldson pic.twitter.com/HWccmTsbaZ
— CNN (@CNN) April 27, 2019