On Monday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders decided to open the press briefing not with an acknowledgement of the FBI indictments of two former Trump campaign members, but with an analogy about beer.
The strange story, which meant to illustrate why the wealthy get higher tax breaks than the rest of the country, centered around 10 reporters who regularly go out for beers, and then split the tab roughly according to the American tax code. When the bar owner decides to give them $20 off their $100 nightly tab, things go awry.
Naturally, Twitter users were perplexed not only by the press secretary’s bizarre analogy and attempts at humor, but also at her timing.
“Sarah Sanders is opening the press briefing with a word problem,” user Britni Danielle wrote. “Girl, this ain’t math class. GET TO THE QUESTIONS ABOUT MANAFORT.”
“On day of bad news for Trump Administaiton, Huckabee Sanders starts off the #PressBriefing with two bad jokes,” another tweeted.
“Seriously. Huckabee Sanders is reading a prepared story insulting reporters and touting tax reform,” journalist Jared Yates Sexton wrote. “How. Does. This. Happen.”
Check out some of the best responses to Huckabee Sanders’ strange opening below.
What the hell is Sarah Huckabee Sanders talking about? 2 Trump associates indicted, 1 plead guilty and she’s singing “99 Beers on the Wall”🍺
— Ana Navarro (@ananavarro) October 30, 2017
Really enjoyed Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ rousing rendition of "Twas the night before taxes…"
— Full Frontal (@FullFrontalSamB) October 30, 2017
Sarah Huckabee Sanders trying to make jokes today, but her voice is shaking and the jokes are falling flat. Reporters not biting today.
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) October 30, 2017
Sarah Huckabee Sanders is stuttering & her opening is a off the hinges even more than usual. The Paul Manafort indictment whiplash? Lovely.
— Ricky Davila (@TheRickyDavila) October 30, 2017
"How can I make today even weirder?"
"I know! I'll give journalists a word problem! They're good at math, right?" — Sarah Sanders, probably— Matt Lindner (@mattlindner) October 30, 2017
Sarah Huckabee Sanders doing a good job of trying to lower the ratings with this long and incomprehensible tax reform-reporters-beer riff.
— Niall Stanage (@NiallStanage) October 30, 2017
I'm still not over Sarah Huckabee Sanders starting her briefing w/ a storybook fairytale about taxes. This WH is unhinged. #IndictmentDay
— Ricky Davila (@TheRickyDavila) October 30, 2017
Apparently the moral of Aesop's Fallacy Fables with Sarah Huckabee Sanders is that everyone but the top 1% are horrible, stupid people.
— Emerson Collins (@ActuallyEmerson) October 30, 2017
HUCKABEE-SANDERS: A farmer has to get a fox, a chicken, and a tax reform bill across a river, but can only fit one at a time in his boat.
— Stefan Heck (@boring_as_heck) October 30, 2017
Sarah Huckabee Sanders would be considered insanely bad at her job if her intended audience weren't people with the acuity of farm animals
— Bruce Arthur (@bruce_arthur) October 30, 2017
Is Sarah Sanders giving us a third grade math problem to solve is this really happening
— Sarah Colonna (@sarahcolonna) October 30, 2017
As far as I can tell Sarah Sanders has had a complete mental break and now lives in a completely imaginary (verbose) world.
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) October 30, 2017
what is this sarah huckabee sanders story? it's like an email forward from 1997 rewrite of atlas shrugged
— erin ryan (@morninggloria) October 30, 2017
Sorry, but what the fuck is Sarah Huckabee Sanders doing right now?
— Eric Haywood (@EricHaywood) October 30, 2017
wtf is sarah sanders even talking about right now
— Teen Daze (@teendaze) October 30, 2017
Seems Sarah Huckerby-Sanders is reading out Donald Trump’s IQ test Questions in the hope someone understands it.
— Bethany Black (@BeffernieBlack) October 30, 2017
If you just watched Sarah Huckabee Sanders press conference, you are now dumber.
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) October 30, 2017
Sarah Huckabee Sanders just gave the most mindless beer analogy. pic.twitter.com/8KmR0r640k
— PainfullyObvious (@painfllyobvious) October 30, 2017
*Paul Manafort & George Papadopoulos indicted*
Sarah Huckabee Sanders: "Three reporters walk into a bar…"What? #PressBriefing pic.twitter.com/5jo1RBgWMC
— Savannah L. Barker (@savannah_lb) October 30, 2017
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