Sarah Huckabee Sanders Sparks Heated Response Over 'Fake News' Claims (Watch)

WASHINGTON, DC — Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders sparking a heated response from one reporter during Tuesday's televised briefing. You can watch a replay of the event on Patch below.

Asked about President Trump's recent tweets condemning CNN, which retracted a story about Trump over the weekend, Huckabee Sanders decried the use of anonymous sources and said that sometimes reports use no sources at all. While major media outlets do often use anonymous sources — including unnamed White House officials — no major outlet relies on unsourced reporting.

Huckabee Sanders continued, saying she thinks the media focuses too much on the Russia story, and not enough on the White House's accomplishments. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

"Do you actually expect us not to report on a foreign country trying to influence our election?" asked Charlie Spiering of Breitbart. Huckabee Sanders just said that she thought reporters should focus as much on that story.

"We've been going on this Russia-Trump hoax for the better part of a year now," she said. "If we make the slightest mistake, the slightest word is off, it is just an absolute tirade from a lot of people in this room. But news outlets get to go on, day after day, and cite unnamed sources, use stories without sources. You mentioned the Scaramucci story, were they had to have reporters resign."

After she had extensively criticized the media and its treatment of the White House, one reporter responded by saying that she was feeding into a false and unfair narrative about the press:

"Anyone of us, if we don't get it, the audience has the opportunity to turn the channel or not read us ," he said. "But you've been elected to serve four years at least. There's no option other than that. We're here to ask you questions; you're here to give the answers. And what you just did is inflammatory to people all over the country who look at it and say: 'See, once again, the president is right, and everyone else out here is fake media.'"

The tensions expressed show degrading relationship between the White House and the press. This month, the White House has dramatically cut back on the number of televised briefings it permits. This will be only the third on-camera briefing in three weeks.

Huckabee Sanders delivered the briefing in place of Sean Spicer, a change from the initial plans. The briefing took place the day after the White House released a statement warning that Syria may use chemical weapons again and threatening that the United States would retaliate. Multiple outlets reported that defense officials were surprised by the statement, but the White House said Tuesday that all relevant departments were notified of the decision.

When asked about the process that led to the release of the statement, she said that the leadership from all relevant departments were involved at before the statement was released.

Questions about the Senate health care bill, which was just recently scored by the Congressional Budget Office, also continue to hound the administration and Congress. The report found that the bill would add an additional 22 million people to the rolls of the uninsured by 2026. The White House has previously criticized the accuracy of CBO.

"I don't have a lot of confidence in that number," Huckabee Sanders said in reference to the report. She said that there will be changes and adjustments to the bill.

As she left the briefing room, a reporter called out, saying he was from CNN, wanting to know if she would take a question from him.

"You talked about CNN Sarah, can I ask you a question?" he asked. "Sarah?"

She ignored the queries and walked out.

Watch a live stream of the event below.

Correction: This post originally misstated Rick Perry's position. He is secretary of Energy.

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images News/Getty