Sarah Sanders officially quits her job after hiding from the press all year

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump’s longtime press secretary known for her dishonesty, is leaving the White House, Trump announced Thursday afternoon.

“After 3 1/2 years, our wonderful Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be leaving the White House at the end of the month and going home to the Great State of Arkansas,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “She is a very special person with extraordinary talents, who has done an incredible job! I hope she decides to run for Governor of Arkansas – she would be fantastic. Sarah, thank you for a job well done!”

Sanders, who is indeed considering running for governor of Arkansas, will leave her position at the end of the month after holding only two press conferences in all of 2019. The most recent official briefing was on March 11, or 94 days ago.

On April 25, Sanders held a fake “briefing” for the children of reporters on Take Your Child to Work Day, despite having refused to officially brief their parents for more than a month. She asked that the briefing be “off the record.” (Reporters did not comply.)

Like her boss, Sanders has frequently lied to the press and the public.

In April, Sanders ran to Fox News to lie about April Ryan, a White House reporter. Sanders falsely claimed Ryan called for her decapitation.

Sanders has lied about everything from jobs numbers to Trump’s racism.

After Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey, Sanders stood in the press room and told reporters that it happened because “countless FBI agents” had “lost confidence in Comey.” When asked about her statement by special counsel Robert Mueller, however, Sanders admitted it was a lie.

Sanders has not held a single official briefing since the Mueller report, and her admission to lying, became public.

Aside from her dishonesty, Sanders will be remembered for consistently not doing her job. Rather than daily press briefings, Sanders abandoned the briefing room for weeks and months at a time. After one 42-day absence, Sanders spent a mere 15 minutes talking to reporters before going back into hiding.

Sanders did face some public consequences for her allegiance to Trump. In the summer of 2018, she was asked to leave the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia. After being privately embarrassed, Sanders chose to lead an all-out public media assault against the Red Hen. A year later, however, the owner of the Red Hen said that business had never been better.

Sanders will remain at the White House through the end of June.

In December 2018, Sanders said that she hoped people would remember her for being “transparent and honest” in her job.

She can certainly tell herself that. It will be just one more lie.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.