#Piegate comes back as Sarah Sanders bakes for reporters

Sarah Huckabee Sanders will bring four 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 the pies in various stages of preparation, along with raw ingredients and the finished product.

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.

‘It’s pie time! With or without bourbon @AprilDRyan?’ Sanders tweeted, thanking Vice President Mike 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. 

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

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.’