Sarah Sanders Reveals She Sometimes Faces Harassment Over Her Support for Trump During Debut as Fox News Contributor

Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders calls on reporters during the daily news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington on Sept. 5, 2017. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders made her debut as a Fox News contributor on Sept. 6, where she revealed that she still faces verbal harassment over her support for President Donald Trump.

Sanders, who was kicked out of a Virginia restaurant in 2018 because she worked for the Trump administration, told Fox & Friends that she sometimes still encounters people who come up to her to say something “nasty” while looking for a reaction.

“What I find interesting is 99 percent of the people who come over to say something negative, and to attack you, are women. I find that very startling from a group of people that claim to be the champions of women empowerment,” Sanders told the program. “I’m only the third woman and the first mom to ever be the White House press secretary. Yet women attack me relentlessly, instead of being proud that we have more women doing those types of jobs.”

She said her usual response is to “nod, smile and say ’thank you for your time' and walk on” in order to avoid fueling the confrontation.

Last year, the co-owner of Red Hen in Virginia Stephanie Wilkinson asked Sanders to leave her restaurant because of the former press secretary’s association with the Trump administration. Her restaurant subsequently received backlash and a drop in ratings on Yelp. Wilkinson penned an op-ed earlier in the year arguing that businesses and servers should not have to hide their political opposition when they clock in to work. The op-ed was a response to an incident during which the president’s son, Eric Trump, was allegedly spat on by an employee of an upscale Chicago cocktail lounge.

During her appearance, Sanders was also asked to react to some of the proposed measures 2020 Democratic presidential candidates have promulgated in recent interviews and town halls. During a CNN town hall on Sept. 4, several candidates said they were in support of a ban on plastic straws, confiscating gas-powered vehicles, and other bans to reduce carbon emissions.

Meanwhile, Democratic candidate Bill de Blasio told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Sept. 5 that American tax dollars incentivize companies to lay off workers in favor of automation. He proposed a solution in a Wired op-ed introducing a “robot tax” that requires companies to pay an amount equal to five years worth of payroll taxes for every worker fired.

“The things that are coming out of Democrats’ mouths these days, I can’t even process it they’re so stupid,” Sanders said. “I mean they want to take our country back so far, it is unbelievable to me that they want to move our country backward instead of taking us forward.”

“Any American that is listening to the things that the Democrats are saying and still supports them, you have to ask them: Why? What do you think is going to be better for you under these people leading our country?”

Fox News announced on Aug. 22 that Sanders was being brought in to join the network as a contributor. The network said in a statement that Sanders will be providing political commentary and analysis across a number of Fox News programs.

Sanders, who is the daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, served as President Donald Trump’s press secretary from July 2017 to June 2019. During an emotional speech following the resignation announcement, Sanders expressed appreciation for being able to serve the president and that she loved “every minute” of it.