Jun 28, 2017 - Politics & Policy

Highlights from Sanders' off-camera briefing

Alayna Treene

Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders surprised reporters for a second day in a row when she appeared at the briefing podium Wednesday instead of Sean Spicer. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials also spoke, with Sanders claiming that if the White House had announced the guests ahead of time, the media wouldn't have covered them. Other highlights from the off-camera briefing:

Sarah Sanders

Is Trump running for reelection? "Of course."
On Manafort retroactively registering as a foreign agent: Sanders said she can't speak for the 2016 campaign team.
What are Trump's policy preferences on Medicaid? Sanders said she didn't have that information.

ICE acting Director Thomas Homan

On separating families: "Families of U.S. citizens get separated every day" and people who are in the U.S. illegally have "put themselves in that position."
On notion immigrants are "more dangerous": Homan conceded that undocumented immigrants do not commit more crimes than native born Americans.
Number of illegal immigrants in U.S.: "11 to 12 million" said Homan, and noted that he "never heard" of the 30 million estimate Trump used in his 2016 campaign.
On ICE's reputation: "People think I'm standing up here and I'm the devil. Why am I so strong on this? If you saw what I saw over the last 33 years, I wouldn't get half the bad media that I get."

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Highlights from Sanders' off-camera briefing

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