White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders urged people to call the New York Times opinion desk to uncover the identity of the anonymous senior official who penned a scathing analysis of the Trump administration, and claimed to be part of the “resistance.”
Sanders posted a note to Twitter with the caption, “For those of you asking for the identity of the anonymous coward:”
“The media’s wild obsession with the identity of the anonymous coward is recklessly tarnishing the reputation of thousands of great Americans who proudly serve our country and work for President Trump,” Sanders said. She then encourages people curious about the identity of the”gutless loser” to call the opinion desk of the “failing NYT.”
“They are the only ones complicit in this deceitful act,” she wrote.
The Times described the anonymous op-ed author as a “senior official” within the administration. The author wrote in the essay, published Wednesday, that many senior officials are “working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations,” and that the administration is a divided “two-track presidency.”
Trump tweeted after the piece published, “If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!”
8 Times Hypocrite Donald Trump Used the Kind of Anonymous Sources He Now Condemns (Photos)
On Sunday, Donald Trump derided the use of anonymous sourcing in news stories. He also said in February that news outlets "shouldn't be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody's name." It's strange he thinks that, because he's used a lot of anonymous sources himself. Here are some examples.
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Two years after President Obama released his birth certificate, Trump said it was not believable to some people. "You know, some people say that was not his birth certificate," he told ABC in August 2013. "I'm saying I don't know. Nobody knows and you don't know either."
Trump took care to describe this source as "extremely credible."
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Trump so often sources information to "many people" (without naming any of them) that there's a well-worn #manypeoplearesaying hashtag on Twitter. The Washington Post wrote an article about it, which includes the examples on the next three slides.
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At a rally in September, a man in Trump's audience said President Obama was a Muslim and “not even an American,” then asked Trump to get rid of Muslim “training camps.”
“You know, a lot of people are saying that, and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening out there,” Trump responded.
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In early January, Trump said he had heard from many Republicans worried that his rival, Sen. Ted Cruz, was born in Canada.
“I’d hate to see something like that get in his way, but a lot of people are talking about it, and I know that even some states are looking at it very strongly, the fact that he was born in Canada and he has had a double passport,” Trump told the Post.
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In May 2016, Trump told the Post what some "people" believe about the death of Vince Foster. “I don’t bring [Foster’s death] up because I don’t know enough to really discuss it,” Trump said. “I will say there are people who continue to bring it up because they think it was absolutely a murder. I don’t do that because I don’t think it’s fair.”
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Soon after Trump called for an end to anonymous sourcing, The Associated Press noted, "Members of Trump's White House team regularly demand anonymity when talking to reporters."
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Surprise: Trump berates the news media for doing something he’s done himself
On Sunday, Donald Trump derided the use of anonymous sourcing in news stories. He also said in February that news outlets "shouldn't be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody's name." It's strange he thinks that, because he's used a lot of anonymous sources himself. Here are some examples.