MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace angrily said clips of White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders would no longer air on her program on Wednesday, dramatically fanning herself and saying Sanders' comments about the First Amendment "made me sweat."
Wallace played footage of President Donald Trump supporters jeering, cursing and flipping off CNN reporter Jim Acosta and other journalists at a rally Trump held in Florida on Tuesday. Wallace is a former Republican operative and co-host of "The View" who has found a niche moderating "Deadline: White House," and she is one of the network's fiercest critics of the Trump administration.
When Sanders was asked about the administration's stance on supporters jeering the media, she replied, "While we certainly support freedom of the press, we also support freedom of speech, and we think that those things go hand in hand."
Wallace was infuriated by the answer.
"Joining us now, New York Times chief White House—You know, we're not going to air that anymore. Let's make that the last Sarah Huckabee Sanders clip ever aired at four o'clock," she said. "Yup, that’s it. You know, it makes me sweat. That is vile."
She then wiped her forehead, repeating, "That made me sweat."
"This is someone who complains about a restaurant that exercises their First Amendment right to kick out someone that they think is obliterating democratic norms," she said. "Seriously, that made me sweat."
Wallace then fanned herself with a piece of paper.
Her promise could prove difficult to keep since "Deadline: White House" airs at 4 p.m. EST, often shortly after the White House press briefing concludes—the Trump White House has done briefings far more less frequently than its predecessor, however. If major news breaks during a briefing and Wallace keeps to her word, the show will have to describe what Sanders said rather than simply play the clip.
Sanders has strongly frustrated Wallace in the past as well. She once asked White House reporter Kristen Welker how she could resist the temptation to "run up and wring her neck" over Sanders' opaque answers about a staffer who joked about Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) dying. Wallace later apologized.