CNN's political director on Thursday said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has "lost credibility with the American people" after her responses to questions regarding a hush money payment made by President Trump's personal lawyer to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels.
In an appearance on CNN Thursday afternoon, David Chalian said the briefing marked a turning point for Sanders, who claimed she gave reporters all the information she had at the time regarding Trump's knowledge of the payment by his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen.
"Circle May 3rd on your calendar, because this is the day that we will look back on, in this briefing, where Sarah Sanders made it so painfully clear that she has lost credibility with the American people, with the reporters in that room," Chalian said.
Rudy Giuliani, the former Republican mayor of New York City who recently joined Trump's legal team, said Wednesday night on Fox News that the president had repaid Cohen for the $130,000 the personal lawyer paid to keep Stormy Daniels silent about an alleged affair she'd had with the president. Giuliani's statement contradicted Sanders's previous statement that Trump had no knowledge of the money or the nondisclosure agreement signed just weeks before the 2016 presidential election.
"This was information the president didn't know at the time, but eventually learned," Sanders said at the Thursday briefing in response to a barrage of questions from reporters. "We give the very best information we have at the time."
"She's acknowledged that she can only go out there with information [that is] the best available," Chalian continued. "Well if the best available is false, bad, untrue information, she's failing at her job, and I think we saw that time and time again in today's press briefing."
Sanders said she only became aware Trump repaid Cohen during Giuliani's interview, but did not clarify when the president became aware of the payment.