President Donald Trump and author Michael Wolff spoke by phone for only a few minutes, but he never once interviewed the president for his exposé, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday, denying claims Wolff made in an interview just minutes before.
"We said they spoke once by the phone for a few minutes, but it wasn't about the book," Sanders told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program.
"They had a very short conversation. But he never interviewed the president about the book. He repeatedly begged to speak with the president, and was denied access, and he makes it sound like he was sitting outside the Oval Office every single day, which is just not the case."
Wolff, she continued, "is a guy who made up a lot of stories to try to sell books and I think more and more people are starting to see that his facts just simply don't add up."
Sanders said, though, she does know that Wolff met often with former chief strategist Steve Bannon, whose quotes in the book about Trump, his family, and the White House led the president to declare he "lost his mind" when he was fired.
"We looked at the logs," Sanders said. "We know that they met on multiple occasions. He was frequently seen meeting with him. So, I think that's a pretty indisputable fact on that front."
In her press briefing Thursday, Sanders denied that some parts of the book were correct, and on Friday, she said that many of those quoted in the book are not only saying their comments were off the record, but that they did not make those statements at all.
"I think that this individual, Michael Wolff, has a long history of not being very credible when it comes to sourcing, when it comes to putting books together," said Sanders.
"In fact, reporters that are routinely incredibly critical of this president have said that the journalistic practice of Michael Wolff, I think, gives everybody in journalism a bad name. I think every day we are seeing more and more examples of why that's the case."
Sanders also said Friday that she thinks it's "absolutely insane" how members of the media, lawmakers, and others think they can diagnose Trump's mental status.
"It's absolutely insane to think these individuals, reporters and others now all of the sudden have a medical degree and think that they can diagnose somebody, many times that they have never even had a conversation with," said Sanders.
"It's absolutely outrageous just to make these types of accusations and untrue and sad people are going and making these desperate attempts to attack the president."
What is really "mentally unstable," she said, is that people don't see the positive impact Trump is having, considering the economy and more.
Sanders also commented about remarks made by radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh on Thursday, when he accused Bannon of being the person leaking items to the press from the White House.
"We all know that he spent a lot of time with reporters," said Sanders. "I think he spent a lot more time with reporters than he ever did with the president, and I think that's very telling."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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