CNN's Dana Bash said Thursday that President Donald Trump is preventing the media from talking about policy by sending out controversial tweets, adding that White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had no choice but to defend his most recent tweets at that day's press briefing.
Trump caused a firestorm Thursday morning by personally attacking MSNBC's "Morning Joe" hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski via Twitter, saying the latter was bleeding from a face-lift during a trip to Mar-a-Lago last year. Reporters focused almost exclusively on the tweets during the White House press briefing.
Sanders said Trump was "fighting fire with fire" by mocking the "Morning Joe" hosts and that the media should shift its priorities. Bash criticized that point by blaming Trump for making news on Twitter.
"I also think that the notion that we're not focused on policy is ridiculous, please," Bash said. "Please give us a day where we can talk about the health care policy of this nation and how the Republicans are trying to figure out how to deal with it, and not have to have a conversation about a ridiculous tweet from the president of the United States."
CNN host Brooke Baldwin and Bash shared a sense of astonishment after the briefing.
"It was like an alternate universe," Bash said of the briefing.
Bash said that Sanders was exclusively looking to please Trump during the briefing. Sanders had defended the president earlier Thursday morning, and Bash argued that Trump expected her to defend him without qualification.
"I completely understand and watch exactly what Sarah Huckabee Sanders was doing," Bash said. "She was speaking to an audience of one, the president of the United States, who no doubt was watching to make sure that his spokesperson was a fighter just like he expects her to be and to make no apology for the kind of behavior that he exhibited in this tweet."
"She did what was obviously expected of her," she added. "It's hard to imagine giving her truth serum and having the same kind of reaction come out of her mouth."