People Who Clearly Don't Like Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Sarah Huckabee Sanders once caught the ire of her fellow Republicans for the strangest reason. In a 2023 post shared on his blog, Blue Hog Report, Arkansas-based attorney Matthew Campbell revealed that the state's governor had shelled out a whopping $19,000 on a podium that would have ordinarily come with a price tag of around $200 to $900. The Associated Press added more fuel to the fire with a follow-up report suggesting that Sarah's office intended to dig into the Republican Party's coffers to reimburse Arkansas for the exorbitant purchase. 

As the Podiumgate controversy dragged on, several GOP politicians started publicly taking aim at Sanders. As the AP reported, Arkansas Senator John Payton argued that although the podium clearly wasn't worth its hefty price tag, it could still provide some value, noting, "I do think the lesson learned could be worth far more than that if we would just accept the fact that it was bad judgement and it was carelessness." Meanwhile, Arkansas Rep. Julie Mayberry pointed out that the podium was "a complete waste of money if no one is using it," (via WSLS 10). 

However, those words may not have hit quite as hard as the criticism that her father, Mike Huckabee's, former communications director, Rex Nelson, shared with Politico in May 2024. "We are in a weird position of having a governor in this state who doesn't seem to have much interest in governing Arkansas," he stated. When the scandal died down, the Arkansas governor took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to post a cringey video of the podium synced to a Jay-Z song.

A controversial Sarah Huckabee Sanders moment that she probably wishes we would all forget about occurred when the governor spoke at one of Donald Trump's campaign rallies in September 2024. "My kids keep me humble. Unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn't have anything keeping her humble," she said at the time (via NBC News). The offensive remark naturally didn't sit well with Harris herself, nor her husband Doug Emhoff. While appearing on "Good Morning America" shortly afterward, Doug slammed Sanders for being "repulsive and so out-of-touch." The former second gentleman further scoffed, "As if you need to have your own biological children to be humble." Doug also took issue with how the Republican politician willfully mispronounced his wife's name. 

The lawyer further pushed back against Sanders' rude remarks at their own September 2024 campaign event, asserting that there was no reason to preach humility to women in the face of Trump's rise. Even Doug's ex-wife, Kerstin Emoff, took to X to write that Harris' commitment to bettering other people's lives throughout her impressive career was more than enough to keep her grounded. Meanwhile, the former vice president addressed the controversy on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast in October 2024. Harris posited that Sanders was likely unaware that most women weren't striving for humility in their lives. 

The Democratic politician additionally noted, "We have our family by blood and then we have our family by love. And I have both," (via YouTube). Moreover, Harris considered Doug's children from his previous marriage to be her own, and she loved them the same.

During Sarah Huckabee Sanders' 2-year tenure as the White House press secretary in Donald Trump's first administration, she frequently butted heads with CNN reporter Jim Acosta. In August 2018, the esteemed journalist asked Sanders why she didn't explicitly state that the "press was not the enemy of the people," as Ivanka Trump had previously done at an event (via Variety). In response, the Republican politician claimed that several media outlets, including CNN, had encouraged people to harass her and cause her bodily harm. Reflecting on the argument on CNN itself, Acosta recognized that Sanders may be going through a lot. However, he added, "At the same time, she has also come up to this podium on a regular basis and continued to tell the American people provable falsehoods, lies, and so on." 

Moreover, Acosta felt he was only performing his duty as a journalist by pointing out all the blatant inaccuracies. The reporter also had some thoughts to share when the White House went 42 days without a press briefing in 2019. On CNN, he posited that Sanders may not want to answer nuanced questions about Trump's legal woes, arguing, "Sarah Sanders is not going to want to say something from the podium that might get her hauled into the special counsel's office," (via YouTube). Acosta was similarly displeased after an October 2018 briefing when the press secretary refused to accept that her boss was mocking Christine Blasey Ford, who accused supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault. Acosta firmly stated on CNN that "only the most partisan Trump supporter would argue otherwise."

In February 2023, Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivered the Republican Party's response to Joe Biden's State of the Union address. The Arkansas governor didn't hold back in her criticism of the Democratic president, accusing him of focusing on pointless issues that only served the "woke mob" rather than working for the American people at large (via YouTube). Shortly afterward, Biden's White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, clapped back. As the Daily Mail reported at the time, Jean-Pierre shared her rebuttal with reporters: "The way that we see it is the choice is between political fighting over fake conspiracies and delivering for the American people. The president is focused on the latter." Jean-Pierre didn't stop there, going on to proclaim that prominent GOP politicians like Sanders seemed to have an obsession with stripping women's reproductive rights and repeatedly taking aim at transgender children. 

Jean-Pierre hasn't shied away from slamming Sanders on X either. In May 2018, she labeled her "the poster child of what a hypocrite looks like." In May 2018, The Hill shared a tweet featuring CNN political director David Chalian's statement that Sanders had "lost credibility with the American people" following her press briefing regarding Stormy Daniels' hush money case. Jean-Pierre posted a scathing response: "Sarah Sanders NEVER had credibility to begin with as White House Press Secretary." In another tweet, she quipped that the only time she gave an honest answer during a briefing was when she claimed the White House did not denounce John Kelly's remark that the Civil War was triggered by "the lack of an ability to compromise," (via the BBC).

The one time that Sarah Huckabee Sanders proved she's more thin-skinned than Donald Trump was brought on by Michelle Wolf. The comedian left no stone unturned while roasting the then-press secretary at the 2018 White House Correspondents' Dinner. She offered Sanders a back-handed compliment about her job by joking, "I think she's very resourceful, but she burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smokey eye. Like maybe she's born with it, maybe it's lies." At another point, Wolf listed out some of the regular names people would call Sanders before delivering the punchline, "What's Uncle Tom but for white women who disappoint other white women? Oh, I know, Aunt Coulter." Although every White House Correspondents' Dinner host before Wolf has delivered similar blows to attendees, who for the most part have laughed along, the Arkansas governor didn't so much as break a smile throughout her routine. 

During an appearance on "Fox & Friends" in May 2018, Sanders professed that Wolf should go out and find the joy that her life was so clearly devoid of. Of course, she couldn't help but mention that her work in Donald Trump's administration had greatly enriched her own happiness. Notably, during an episode of "The Break," that very same month, Wolf directly addressed the backlash surrounding her comparing Sanders to the character of Aunt Lydia in "The Handmaid's Tale." She clarified that she was poking fun at "her ugly personality," rather than her looks, adding, "She has the Mario Batali of personalities," (via CNN). The comedian also scoffed that Sanders could write the book on hypocrisy.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders' MAGA cred got her booted from a restaurant in Virginia. In June 2018, the then-White House press secretary hopped on her government X handle to share the all-important news of her being kicked out of the Red Hen supposedly because of her work with Donald Trump's initial administration. Later, while speaking to the Washington Post, the establishment's owner, Stephanie Wilkinson, confirmed that she did not regret her decision in the slightest, asserting, "I would have done the same thing again. We just felt there are moments in time when people need to live their convictions. This appeared to be one." The restaurateur elaborated that her decision was triggered by her LGBTQIA+ staff members' discomfort at Sanders' presence. To the Republican politician's credit, though, she didn't push back against Wilkinson when she politely informed her that she wasn't welcome in her establishment. 

The staff left the owner a note which read simply: "86 — Sara Huckabee Sanders." In restaurant lingo, "86" means tossing out a menu item, or in their case, a person. The Arkansas governor has also caught the ire of several other people for her divisive political actions over the years. In April 2025, Sanders shared some awkward praise for Trump that had everyone calling her out. She took to Instagram to show her support for the president following his first 100 days in office. However, her post didn't sit well with many users, leaving them to remind her that Trump's administration had initially refused her request to allocate federal disaster relief funds to Arkansas to help the state cope with a series of storms (among many other things).