Sarah Huckabee Sanders: ‘We have not declared war on the press’

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday night said the Trump administration has “not declared war on the press,” despite the president’s frequent feuding with multiple major news organizations. 

Mike McCurry, who served as press secretary during the Clinton administration, pressed Sanders during a White House Correspondents’ Association panel discussion over President Trump’s repeated attacks on what he calls the “fake news” media, including Trump’s claim that the press is the “enemy of the American people.”

McCurry said Sanders can’t execute her role if the administration says it’s “at war with these people every day in the media,” as first reported by The Washington Post.

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“I think that that’s a two-way street, that there is a level of respect that could be, certainly, brought from the press corps as well,” Sanders responded. “I mean, the idea that you’re going to lay the blame at the feet of the president I find to be a little bit far-fetched.”

Sanders expressed frustration that when briefings are more policy-driven, cable television stations tend to cut away and then return for the sparring with reporters.

“We have not declared war on the press,” she said, though McCurry immediately disputed that point.

Sanders also argued Trump has been very accessible to the media in short question-and-answer sessions and at White House events.

However, Trump has not held a full press conference in more than a year, and has not sat for an interview with a national outlet other than Fox News in several months.

Trump has frequently attacked the media on Twitter, calling unfavorable coverage “fake news” and accusing the press of being “nasty” and vicious.”