Sarah Sanders goes on Fox & Friends to clean up mess from Woodward book -- and still flops

Excerpts from a new book from Pulitzer-winning Watergate reporter Bob Woodward were released on Tuesday, revealing among other things that President Donald Trump thinks his attorney general is "retarded" and that the president's aides steal papers off the Resolute desk before he can read them and become angry or confused.

On Wednesday, White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders appeared on Fox & Friends, where the friendly co-hosts avoided asking her whether Southern accents make people sound retarded and allowed her to repeat the Trump team's line about the book being "fiction."

Host Brian Kilmeade asked Sanders if the White House handled Woodward's requests to meet with Trump, which a taped conversation released by Woodward were properly turned down.

"Looking at the excerpt that we've already seen, and hearing that conversation, did the communications staff make a mistake not making sure that the president sat down with Bob Woodward to at least get his point of view on this? Give him a chance to refute some of these horrific things?" Kilmeade asked.

"There's no question the president is his own best advocate," Sanders said. "He has an incredible story to tell."

Kilmeade pressed Sanders.

"But just sitting down with Bob Woodward, Sarah? Do you think that was a mistake, not going out of your way to sit down with him, judging by what he put out there and the president doesn't get his own side of the story out?" Kilmeade asked.

"Certainly the president is his own best story teller and his own best advocate for his policies," Sanders said.

Watch below.