FACT CHECK: Did Sarah Sanders Say She’s ‘Struggling’ To Find A New Job?
An image shared on Facebook claims that outgoing White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said “she’s ‘struggling’ to find a new job.”
Verdict: False
There is no evidence that Sanders ever made this remark.
Fact Check:
Sanders has served as press secretary since July 2017, when she replaced Sean Spicer after his resignation from the post. On June 13, President Donald Trump announced via Twitter that Sanders would be leaving the White House at the end of the month, thanking her “for a job well done!”
….She is a very special person with extraordinary talents, who has done an incredible job! I hope she decides to run for Governor of Arkansas – she would be fantastic. Sarah, thank you for a job well done!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2019
The claim that Sanders described her job search as a struggle is unsupported. No such statement appears in any news reports online.
A similar claim circulated in December 2018, when an anonymous source told Yahoo News that Sanders, despite trying to leave the White House, could not find a new job. “Everybody’s told her no,” claimed the source, described only as a former transition team member. “Sarah can’t find work.”
A second anonymous source, a former White House official, told the publication the same thing.
When Yahoo News asked Sanders about the rumor that she was looking to leave the White House, she responded by saying that she was “traveling,” providing no further comment.
Although neither anonymous source claimed that Sanders herself said she was “struggling” to find new work, the Facebook page Occupy Democrats made that very claim the day after the story first appeared.
Within hours of publication, Yahoo News updated its story, omitting any reference to Sanders “struggling” to find work. The publication also removed the claim, offered by the same anonymous transition team member, that then-principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah no longer had an office or a phone at the White House.
“The story should have noted that he retains an office in the Executive Office Building and a government cellphone,” reads an editors note.
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