sarah huckabee sanders
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders asked journalists to share what they were thankful for and she received some brutal responses Mark Wilson/Getty Images

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders asked reporters to share what they were thankful for at a press briefing on Monday, 20 November, and Twitter brutally responded. At the start of the briefing, Sanders said, "This will be our last press briefing before the Thanksgiving holiday in this room, so I want to share a few things that I'm thankful for and I think it would be nice for you guys to do so as well before asking your questions.

"Obviously, you probably know, and it's no secret, that I'm clearly very thankful for all of you here in the room, and I think that goes without saying," Sanders said, before adding that she was thankful for the police, first responders and the "incredible privilege of serving this president and the American people".

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Sanders then said reporters would need to share what they were thankful for before asking an official question.

"If you want to ask a question, I think it's only fair since I've shared what I'm thankful for, that you start off with what you're thankful for," she said.

While many were reluctant to do so, American Urban Radio Networks' April Ryan kicked off the exercise saying, "I'm thankful for life, I'm thankful for my children, I'm thankful for being in this job, I'm thankful to be able to talk to you and question you every single day. I hope you feel the passion of my thankfulness."

Another correspondent said she was "thankful for the First Amendment", triggering exclamations of agreement from the rest of the room.

"I think we all are," Sanders replied to which Ryan shot back, "Yeah, but we are part of it."

Meanwhile, Sanders' strange exercise during the White House press briefing triggered a slew of brutal and mocking comments and memes on Twitter.

Many people slammed the press secretary for treating journalists like "kindergarten kids".

"Have we become North Korea already?" one Twitter user asked. "I'm surprised she didn't demand they say how thankful they were for the dotard."

Another asked, "What is this, kindergarten carpet time?"

Some journalists and others who weren't at the briefing gleefully responded to her request with witty and sarcastic answers.

"I am thankful that the heat death of the universe will be coming for us all. Anyway, answer my question..." BuzzFeed's Hayes Brown wrote.

Refinery29 writer Madison Medeiros tweeted, "It's a good thing I'm not part of the WH press corps because I don't think Sarah Sanders would appreciate me saying that I'm thankful the president never grabbed me by the pu**y."

White House Twitter