CNN’s political analyst April Ryan reignited her long-running feud with White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders in (French) revolutionary style, calling it time to “start lopping the heads off.” Things quickly got out of hand.
“She should be let go, she should be fired, end of story,” Ryan opined on Thursday night. “When there is a lack of credibility there, you have to start lopping the heads off...she needs to go.”
Adding a delicious layer of irony, Ryan went on to blame Sanders for threats against journalists.
“She’s calling us fake,” Ryan said. “I have to have security because of being called fake and a loser and all sorts of things from that White House.”
Ryan’s colorful condemnation came after Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report claimed Sanders misled the public on the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, claiming Comey had lost the support of rank-and-file FBI agents. Sanders stood by her claim, despite admitting to Mueller that it was “not founded on anything.”
Was Ryan’s ‘off with her head’ a sinister call for violence or a colorful euphemism? Either way, Sanders’ father, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, stepped in to defend his daughter.
“Will the White House Correspondents’ Association revoke April Ryan’s credentials?,” he tweeted. “If not, they are gutless tools.”
Ryan responded, warning the Arkansas Republican that “If anything happens to me or mine or anyone connected to me, you and your daughter and this administration will be held accountable!” Ryan also warned Huckabee that "My people see you and will do the same for you!”
The exchange drew popcorn munchers on Twitter, with the Right up in arms. “April Ryan literally called for @PressSec’s head to be ‘lopped off’ and is now playing the victim because her dad called for her credentials to be revoked,” Republican strategist Caleb Hull tweeted. “In what world is this ok?”
Ryan’s fans, meanwhile, cheered on their hero.
Although combative press conferences are commonplace in President Donald Trump’s White House, Ryan has a long history of verbal spats with Sanders and the Trump administration. Most famously, Ryan sparked the #piegate micro-scandal when she first claimed Sanders lied about a pecan pie she tweeted a photo of, then accused Sanders of poisoning a pie for Ryan as revenge.
We truly live in the golden age of Washington journalism.
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