Press. voanews.com
For a second
consecutive day, the White House press secretary on Thursday fielded a barrage
of reporters' questions about a forthcoming book that portrays a chaotic
initial year for the presidency of Donald Trump. Most people in
the United States could "probably care less about a book full of
lies," responded Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who characterized Fire and Fury
as "trash" and something "a fired employee wanted to
peddle."
That fired
employee is Steve Bannon, who ran Trump's presidential campaign in its final
quarter of 2016 and was chief strategist in the White House for the initial
seven months of his presidency. Bannon is quoted
extensively by author Michael Wolff in the 336-page book. Asked whether
Breitbart News should fire Bannon, who is executive chairman of the right-wing
news and opinion website, Sanders replied, "I certainly think it's
something they should look at and consider."
A lawyer for the
president on Thursday sought to block publication of the book, contending it is
defamatory and libelous and demanding that Wolff and his publisher, Henry Holt
and Co., stop its release. It originally had been scheduled to be released
Tuesday, but Wolff said Thursday that it now would arrive in bookstores Friday
— four days early. Charles Harder
said his legal team was "investigating numerous false and/or baseless
statements" made about Trump in the book that Wolff said came from more
than 200 interviews he conducted during Trump's successful election campaign
and after the president took office a year ago.
