#Piegate is over! White House press secretary Sarah Sanders brings homemade chocolate pecan pies to reporters' party after journalist April Ryan accused her of faking Thanksgiving dessert photo
- White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted a photo of a chocolate pecan pie on Thanksgiving, saying she baked it for her family
- The picture was shot against a white background, leading skeptics including an outspoken White House reporter, to suspect it was a fake
- The journalist, April Ryan, suggested it was store-bought or a stock photo
- Sanders baked four of the pies on Wednesday and brought a pair to the White House press corps' annual holiday potluck dinner party on Thursday
- Ryan said she still wants to see a video of Sanders baking it
- Ryan's Instagram shows that she paid caterers to cook her own Thanksgiving dinner
- She turned conciliatory at the party – 'I believe you made this pie!' – but refused to eat it and wouldn't say if she believed Sanders made the Thanksgiving pie
Sarah Huckabee Sanders brought a pair of chocolate pecan pies to a White House press corps holiday potluck on Thursday – her effort to defuse the '#piegate' controversy and tweak the reporter who launched it.
The White House press secretary tweeted photos Wednesday night showing four pies in various stages of preparation, along with raw ingredients and the finished product. Two of them made it to the White House basement Thursday afternoon.
April Ryan, a correspondent with American Urban Radio Networks, had suggested after Thanksgiving that she believed Sanders had faked a tweeted photo of her family-recipe dessert.
Ryan turned somewhat conciliatory on Thursday at the White House party, saying 'I believe you made this pie!' – but refusing to taste it, and declining to agree that Sanders had baked the dessert that started the squabble.
'It’s pie time! With or without bourbon @AprilDRyan?' Sanders tweeted Wednesday night, thanking Vice PresidentMike Pence's chief of staff Nick Ayers 'for supplying the pecans from his family farm in Georgia.'
The '#piegate' tempest pits White House press secretary Sarah sanders (left) against reporter April Ryan (right), who has said she doesn't believe a photo of a Thanksgiving pie Sanders posted online depicts something she actually baked
Sanders decided to tweak Ryan by documenting her baking this time, preparing four pies for the press corps
'Let me know if you need further documentation,' the dry-witted Sanders wrote
The finished products were laid out on a table on Wednesday evening in advance of an annual party held in the basement of the White House press wing
Ryan wasn't satisfied, saying she still wants 'a pic and video if [sic] you baking it'
'Ingredients all mixed up and pies in the oven! @AprilDRyan let me know if you need further documentation #piegate,' she added.
'Okay I want to see the pics and videos. I will check it tomorrow but won’t eat it!' Ryan responded.
'I won’t eat the pie but I do look forward to seeing it. I am so glad you want me to view your culinary skills. I still want a pic and video if [sic] you baking it. Lol!'
True, Sanders didn't post a photo of herself elbow-deep in flour.
Also true, Ryan posted an Instagram photo of her own Thanksgiving dinner in November, thanking the catering company that prepared it.
'Happy Thanksgiving! The dinner is done. Thank you Simply Elegant Catering! It is so good!!!!' the reporter wrote.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders (right) and American Urban Radio Networks correspondent April Ryan (left) pose with chocolate pecan pies from Sanders' kitchen at a White House potluck holiday party on December 14, 2017; Ryan declined to taste it
Ryan has been in the news this week at the center of a squabble over how Omarosa Manigault-Newman's tenure at the White House ended; Ryan says she was fired and physically dragged out of the White House complex
On Thursday evening as she posed with Sanders and her pies, Ryan wouldn't admit she was wrong.
'You don't want to go there,' the reporter said when asked if she believed Sanders baked the Thanksgiving dessert.
But she agreed that the pie in front of her was home-baked, not a Safeway special.
'It's a nice pie. I believe you made this pie!' she said.
'This is our reset. Not just for me, but for all of us,' Ryan added. 'And it doesn't mean that I need to eat the pie.'
Sanders called for a group vote among White House correspondents to see if Ryan should be obligated to try the dish.
'I don't care if they take a group vote or not. I am not eating the pie!' she retorted.
Ryan's own kitchen bona fides may be in question: She posted this photo of her Thanksgiving dinner on Instagram, thanking the caterer who cooked it
Ryan is the same journalist who got into a war of words with Omarosa Manigault-Newman this week, claiming on CNN that she was fired and physically dragged out of the White House complex.
The presidential adviser and former 'The Apprentice' contestant replied on 'Good Morning America' that it was untrue and said Ryan has a personal 'vendetta' against her.
Ryan started the digital dessert fracas on Twitter after Sanders posted a picture of her Thanksgiving pecan pie against a neutral background, drawing speculation – but no proof – that it was a stock photo.
'Show it to us on a table,' Ryan jabbed.
'I am not trying to be funny but folks are already saying #piegate and #fakepie,' she continued.
'Show it to us on the table with folks eating it and a pic of you cooking it. I am getting the biggest laugh out of this. I am thankful for this laugh on Black Friday!'
Sanders joked last month that the worst thing you can accuse a southern woman of is serving a store-bought pie
How it began: Sanders tweeted this photo of a perfect chocolate pecan pie on Thanksgiving Day, prompting some on Twitter to cry 'fake'
Ryan picked up the thread and mocked Sanders: 'I am getting the biggest laugh out of this'
Responding to a journalist who shared a photo of her own baking, Ryan was more gracious but reminded everyone that she would refuse to taste Sanders' culinary creation
Responding to another reporter's photo of a homemade pie, she replied: 'See I know your husband cooks up a storm and I have eaten his food. Beautiful pic of your real pie. ... I hope they enjoyed the stock photo pie!'
Sanders made a public appearance the following week and was asked about the squabble.
'You know, being from the South, I think one of the most offensive things you can accuse somebody of is [serving] a store-bought pie,' she laughed. 'I usually make it with bourbon.'
'I make it every holiday for my family, including at Christmas, I used to make it for all of my neighbors on my street,' she added.
'So if you don't believe me, go back to Arkansas and check with them.'
At the end of Thursday's White House press briefing, Sanders pointed to Ryan's seat.
'April, I'm looking forward to having some pie with you momentarily,' she grinned.
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