President Trump today

By Meg Wagner, CNN

Updated 11:57 AM ET, Mon August 27, 2018
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5:39 p.m. ET, June 5, 2018

Our coverage of today's White House event has concluded.

4:36 p.m. ET, June 5, 2018

President Trump will continue to hit National Anthem debate through midterms, source says

From CNN's Jim Acosta, Kevin Liptak and Liz Landers

A source close to the White House says the President plans to continue to pound the NFL National Anthem issue through the midterms.

Another person familiar with his thinking says Trump has touted this issue before as something that could help him in the midterms, and wants to keep it in the bloodstream.

Sen. Cory Gardner was asked about whether this issue would help the GOP pick up senate seats in November — and he didn’t say no.

“The American people know that this is an issue is something that they’ve seen in the NFL. They’ve seen on TV. It’s been in the news. Stand up for the National Anthem, that’s what I would do.”

3:43 p.m. ET, June 5, 2018

Trump didn't answer any questions about the Philadelphia Eagles

From CNN's Jim Acosta

Trump sings the national anthem with a US Army chorus during a 'Celebration of America' event on the south lawn of the White House June 5, 2018.
Trump sings the national anthem with a US Army chorus during a 'Celebration of America' event on the south lawn of the White House June 5, 2018. Win McNamee/Getty Images

President Trump attended a "celebration of America" event at the White House this afternoon instead of hosting the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Eagles were supposed to be at the White House today to celebrate their Super Bowl victory, but Trump canceled the meeting due to the controversy over standing for the National Anthem at NFL games.

As Trump left the event to return to the Oval Office, several people shouted questions at him about the team and the NFL protests.

Trump did not answer any of them.

3:18 p.m. ET, June 5, 2018

Trump doesn't think the NFL kneeling protests are about free speech, White House says

The Supreme Court yesterday ruled in favor of a Colorado baker who refused to bake a cake to celebrate a same sex couple's marriage because of a religious objection — a decision the Trump administration supports.

However, President Trump has continuously criticized NFL players who protest by kneeling during the National Anthem. The White House press secretary was just asked about the two cases.

"If the White House supports the baker's right of free speech, why doesn't the White House support the players' right to free speech?" a reporter asked.

Here's how Sanders responded:

"The President doesn't think this is an issue simply of free speech. He thinks it's about respecting the men and women of our military. It's about respecting our National Anthem, and it's about standing out of pride for that."

A lengthy back-and-forth ensued. Watch the whole discussion in the video below:

2:58 p.m. ET, June 5, 2018

Sanders: "My credibility is probably higher than the media's"

From CNN's Jeremy Diamond

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Tuesday she believes her "credibility is probably higher than the media's."

Sanders comment came as she refused for the second day in a row to correct the record or address why she claimed in August that the President did not dictate the initial statement Don Jr. statement about his Trump Tower meeting. The President's lawyers have since said the President did dictate the statement.

Here's what she said:

"I work every single day to give you accurate and up to date in formation and i'm going to continue to do that. Frankly i think my credibility is probably higher than the media's. I think in large part that's because a lot of you guys spend more of your time focused on attacking the President than reporting the news. I think that if you spent a little bit more of your time reporting the news than trying to tear me down you might actually see that we're working hard to provide you good information."
2:56 p.m. ET, June 5, 2018

What Sarah Sanders said about Trump's latest tweet about Jeff Sessions

President Trump tweeted about his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, this morning, again suggesting he could have picked another person for the job.

Sarah Sanders was just asked about the tweet. Here's how the exchange went down:

Q: "The President again took a stick to his favorite piñata, Jeff Sessions, today. What is the President's goal here?"

A: "Look, the President's made his position on this extremely clear, and I don't have anything to add beyond that."

2:48 p.m. ET, June 5, 2018

Sanders refuses to correct statement: "I think you all know I'm an honest person"

From CNN's Kevin Liptak

Sarah Sanders refused again on Tuesday to correct her August statement that President Trump wasn't involved in drafting a misleading statement about his son's meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower.

"I'm not going to go into detail and go into a back and forth. I know that you guys would love to engage on matters of conversations between the special counsel and the outside counsel, but we purposefully" remain separate from special counsel matters, the press secretary said when pressed by CNN's Pamela Brown.

A day earlier, Sanders referred questions on the matter to the President's outside counsel. The President's lawyer did respond, saying Trump did dictate the statement. Rudy Giuliani later said it was a mistake to say he didn't.

But Sanders insisted she remain "walled off" from the outside counsel's work.

"I'm not going to get into back and forth on that," she said.

"I think you all know I'm an honest person," she added.

2:44 p.m. ET, June 5, 2018

White House applauds decision to cancel recess

From CNN's Kevin Liptak

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced today he was canceling the Senate's August recess. The White House said it applauds that decision.

"There’s been historic obstruction by Senate Democrats and there’s a long to-do list," press secretary Sarah Sanders said.

Trump had pressured McConnell to cancel the recess.

2:43 p.m. ET, June 5, 2018

White House blames "political stunt by the Eagles franchise"

Sarah Sanders was asked if President Trump's cancellation of the Eagles White House visit was about the National Anthem.

The same reporter pointed out that the no one on the team knelt during the entire season. Sanders said it wasn't about the kneeling, but rather that the Eagles changed the commitment.

"The Eagles are the ones that tried to change their commitment at the 11th hour and the President frankly thinks that the fans deserve better than that and, therefore, we changed the ceremony to be a focus on celebrating our great country," she said.

"If it wasn’t a political stunt, they wouldn’t have planned to attend the event and backed out at the last minute," Sanders said.