Sarah Huckabee Sanders Gets in on the Racist Civil War History Fun 

After John Kelly decided to share his fun views on the history of the Civil War, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders weighed in with her own take on the issue during Tuesday’s press briefing. How did that all go?

To the transcript!

All of our leaders have flaws—Washington, Jefferson, JFK, Roosevelt, Kennedy. That doesn’t diminish their contributions to our country. And it certainly can’t erase them from our history. And General Kelly was making the point that just because history isn’t perfect doesn’t mean it’s not our history.

It’s true, we have to remember America’s great, complicated leaders like JFK, Kennedy, and Robert E. Lee.

I don’t know that I’m going to get into debating the Civil War, but I do know that many historians, including Shelby Foote and Ken Burns’ famous Civil War documentary, agree that a failure to compromise was a cause of the Civil War…I’m not going to get up here and relitigate the Civil War.

[…]

There’s pretty strong consensus—people from the left, the right, the North, and the South—that believe that if some of the individuals engaged had been willing to come to some compromises on different things, then it might not have occurred.

What is this magical compromise Sanders vaguely alluded to? Does the compromise involve…not ending slavery? Does Sanders care? She didn’t say.

Because you don’t like history doesn’t mean that you can erase it and pretend it didn’t happen…to try to create something and push a narrative that doesn’t exist is just frankly outrageous and absurd…the media continues to want to make this and push that this is some sort of a racially charged and divided White House…I think it is absurd and disgraceful to keep trying to make comments and take them out of context and mean something they simply don’t.

This White House sure does love sticking to time-honored, nonsensical racist talking points about history, doesn’t it?

The briefing ended with Sanders ducking out of the room as journalist April Ryan asked her if the administration thought slavery was wrong. Surprise! She didn’t answer.

Another great day in America.

Update, 5:35 PM: It seems Ken Burns took issue with being cited by Sanders.