Sarah Sanders: Opposing Trump means Democrats don't love America

Trump’s White House is so desperate to confirm Mike Pompeo they’re attacking the patriotism of Democratic senators.

On Monday morning’s “Fox & Friends,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about Trump’s pick to head the State Department, current CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

“It looks like he is not going to be confirmed,” co-host Ainsley Earhardt said. “What are your thoughts? What’s your reaction? What’s the president’s reaction?”

“We certainly hope that some members will change their minds,” Sanders said. “Look, at some point, Democrats have to decide whether they love this country more than they hate this president.”

The facts are not on Sanders’ side, however. Pompeo doesn’t need Democratic votes to pass out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But he doesn’t even have the support of all the Republicans on that committee.

If Pompeo loses the committee vote that’s scheduled for Monday afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will still place the nomination on the floor for a full Senate vote, but that would make Pompeo the first secretary of state nominee to receive an unfavorable committee vote since 1925.

Democrats and Republicans have legitimate concerns about Pompeo’s anti-Muslim bigotry and fealty to Trump, whose erratic foreign policy poses risks to this country. Opposing Pompeo has absolutely nothing to do with hating Trump, and everything to do with loving this country.

It is a familiar, if disgusting, line of attack for Sanders, who used the same line in February when pressed on Trump’s accusation that Democrats were “un-American” and “treasonous” for not applauding Trump at the State of the Union.

Sanders’ attack is yet another example of the dictatorial impulses of this administration. But Democrats aren’t just doing their jobs by opposing Trump’s extremist nominee, they are serving the country they love.