Sarah Sanders urged to resign over trans military ban ‘misinformation’
Sarah Sanders (Chip Somodevilla/Getty)
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders has been urged to resign by GLAAD over comments she made about Trump’s transgender military ban.
There have been increased calls for Sanders’ resignation since the Mueller report was released yesterday, which found that she had misled reporters about Trump’s firing of former FBI director James Comey.
Sanders reportedly admitted to having made multiple false statements to reporters about his firing and suggested that “countless” FBI agents had lost confidence in him.
GLAAD said Sarah Sanders spread misinformation to reporters about the trans military ban
GLAAD yesterday joined calls for Sanders to resign from her role as press secretary in the White House. The LGBT+ organisation tweeted a link to a video in which reporters asked her questions about the trans military ban when it was first announced.
In the tweets, GLAAD said: “The White House Press Secretary’s role is to keep the public informed about the most powerful office in the world. The position shouldn’t be held by someone who lies to the press.
“When Trump first tweeted about his ban on transgender service members, @PressSec spread misinformation about the ban without batting an eye.
“The White House Press Secretary’s role is to keep the public informed about the most powerful office in the world. The position shouldn’t be held by someone who lies to the press.”
– GLAAD
“@PressSec – it’s time for you to turn in your resignation,” the LGBT+ group said.
The video the organisation linked to shows Sanders responding to questions from reporters shortly after Donald Trump announced his transgender military ban on Twitter.
In the clip, Sanders said: “He’s also voiced that this is a very expensive and disruptive policy and based on consultation that he’s had with his national security team came to the conclusion that it erodes military readiness and unit cohesion and made the decision based on that.”
Sarah Sanders (Chip Somodevilla/Getty)
Sanders was criticised for the response and for suggesting that the trans military ban had support from high-level military officials. Service chiefs of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps have all said that they had not received reports of issues around transgender service members before Trump announced his surprise ban.
The trans military ban has been condemned by groups such as the ACLU
The trans military ban has been heavily criticised by a wide variety of groups including GLAAD and the ACLU.
Ahead of the ban coming into effect, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it “an act of cruelty.”
According to the Palm Center, about 13,700 people will lose their jobs as a result.
“The military is the largest employer in the nation and, as the USTS found, transgender people are twice as likely to have served in the Armed Forces as the general population,” Gillian Bransetter, media relations manager for the National Center for Transgender Equality, told Advocate.
The 2015 US Trans Survey (USTS) found that 18 per cent of all trans people have served in the military, which is thought to be the single largest employer of trans people today.
