Sarah Huckabee Sanders again?
I won’t say it’s a uniquely Republican phenomenon but I will say it’s predominantly Republican to presume that anyone, no matter how underqualified, can hold high office. After all, Sarah Huckabee Sanders was Donald Trump’s Press Secretary for almost 2 years and if that doesn’t make her qualified to be Governor of Arkansas then what does, right?
Republican contempt for education and preparation also extends to science. Trump’s complete lack of medical insight and unwillingness to follow scientific advice led him to some whopping missteps about coronavirus. Conservatively speaking (if you’ll pardon the expression) Trump probably cost the lives of at least 300,000 Americans thanks to his inept handling of the pandemic.
Clearly Sarah Sanders has learned nothing from her betters either, and despite the gracious good sense displayed by her moral and intellectual superior, Jen Psaki, Sanders still comes off like a ham-fisted clod when trying to make a point.
Sanders’ recent op-ed for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is a case in point. She can’t just encourage people to take the vaccine, oh no, that would be too easy. She insists on referring to it as the “Trump vaccine,” and freighting it with all kinds of anti-Biden and anti-Harris political rhetoric.
It occurs to me as I write this that I have known the name Sarah Huckabee Sanders for exactly four years. It was July 26, 2017, when she first took over the office of presidential Press Secretary from Sean Spicer. I have seldom hated anyone quite so instantaneously, and my hatred of her has been confirmed every single time I hear from her without exception. Few people inspire such immediate and visceral dislike in me. Jim Jordan comes to mind. Matt Gaetz comes to mind. Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson come to mind. Few people have more of the repellant opposite of the quality known as charisma than Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
She cemented this idea with almost every word of her editorial. As I said, in promoting it she has to call it “the Trump vaccine,” and she credits Operation Warp Speed with coming up with the vaccine, as if there is only one vaccine and Trump was responsible for it. Well there are in fact three authorized vaccines, and Operation Warp Speed (OWS) came up with none of them. What OWS did come up with was funding for fast-tracking clinical trials and distribution once a vaccine was developed. Even that was so flawed that it had to be overhauled and made more efficient by the Biden administration.
Sanders acknowledges none of that, instead alleging that “arrogant, condescending politicians and bureaucrats were wrong” about mandates and shutdowns. That’s right, Sarah Sanders actually has the gall to refer to someone other than herself as arrogant and condescending. She made a point to add that they “misjudged the Trump vaccine plan.” Trump had no plan, in fact, he was too busy whining about how the election was going to be stolen, then too busy whining about how it was stolen when Biden trounced him.
Sanders goes on to argue that the vaccination rate could be improved if President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris “admit they were wrong to cast doubt on Operation Warp Speed and give President Trump and his team the credit they are due.” They are due no credit whatsoever. As I said, 300,000 Americans (at least) are now dead because of Trump. He doesn’t deserve a medal, he deserves a prison sentence.
Sanders said that she personally got the vaccine, and one reason in particular was because she gushed that she was “reassured after President Trump and his family were vaccinated.” Trump was vaccinated in secret in January. The only reason Sanders knows about it was because it leaked some weeks later.
This awful and stupid woman wants to be Governor of Arkansas. I’m hoping that by the time the election rolls around her personal god will be heavily criminally indicted and his loathsome criminal practices will be generally well known. It will be interesting to see how she turns her campaign’s constant endorsement of a criminal into an advantage. I’m guessing it will cause her problems. I hope so. She’s a disgusting human being who deserves to lose. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.