Sarah Sanders: 'The president is not a liar' The White House responded forcefully after fired FBI director James Comey told senators that the administration had spread 'lies, plain and simple' about his dismissal.

White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said “the president is not a liar” after former FBI director James Comey blasted the White House for telling “lies, plain and simple” about the circumstances surrounding his firing last month.

“No, I can definitively say the president is not a liar,” Sanders told reporters at the White House during an off-camera briefing Thursday. “It’s frankly insulting that that question would be asked.”


Comey testified earlier in the day before the Senate Intelligence Committee about his abrupt dismissal. He suggested his surprise at his firing turned to anger as President Donald Trump and his aides offered a series of evolving reasons for the ouster, starting with displeasure at the way he handled the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.

“It confused me when I saw the president on TV saying he actually fired me because of the Russian investigation,” Comey testified. “I was also confused by the initial explanation offered publicly that I was fired because of decisions I’d made during the election… That didn’t make any sense to me.”

Comey eventually accused the White House of flatly lying when it said the FBI workforce was widely dissatisfied with his performance.

“The administration then chose to defame me and more importantly the FBI, by saying the organization was poorly led,” the ex-FBI chief said. “Those were lies, plain and simple.”

At the White House, Sanders also said the president still has confidence in his Cabinet members, when asked whether he still supports Attorney General Jeff Sessions: “Absolutely, the president has confidence in all of his Cabinet.”

Sanders declined to answer directly during a televised briefing on Wednesday whether the president continued to support Sessions, who offered to resign in late May. Trump has long been irritated by Sessions’ decision in February to recuse himself from the FBI’s ongoing investigation into Russian contacts with Trump associates during the 2016 presidential election, now overseen by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Sanders referred other questions related to the investigation were referred to Trump’s outside lawyer Marc Kasowitz.

Sanders described the mood in the White House as a “regular Thursday.” The president, she said, took a National Security briefing and a meeting on his infrastructure plan.

