White House press secretary Sarah Sanders rebuked NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker for suggesting the Trump administration is at fault for “drawing more” media attention to President Trump’s fallout with former chief strategist Steve Bannon.

The exchange occurred Thursday during the White House afternoon press briefing.

Bannon incurred the president’s wrath on Wednesday when excerpts surfaced from Michael Wolff’s new book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.” The excerpts suggest Bannon ripped the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., for holding a meeting with a Russian lawyer and that Bannon called the action “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.”

[lz_ndn video=33397712]

In response, President Donald Trump issued a blistering four-paragraph takedown of Bannon, claiming that the former employee “has nothing to do with me or my presidency” and “lost his mind” after he left the White House. The president’s personal lawyer, Charles Harder, also threatened Wolff and his publisher with a lawsuit and told Reuters that “legal action is imminent” against Bannon.

“But does this run the risk of increasing book sales though, Sarah? Drawing more attention to this?” Welker asked Sanders during the briefing.

Sanders replied sharply, “I think you guys are the ones that are drawing the attention. Every question basically that I’ve been asked has to do with that. It’s not like I came out here and read excerpts from the book.”

[lz_third_party includes=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMCO8OLx1HM&t=1s]

“So I don’t think that I can be responsible for the questions that you ask,” she added. “In fact, if I tried to do that, I’m sure I would certainly be attacked for trying to.”

Just prior to this exchange, Welker had asked Sanders about the legal action Trump threatened to dole out toward Bannon and Wolff, questioning whether they should “be concerned” the president would follow through on his threats.

Who do you think would win the Presidency?

By completing the poll, you agree to receive emails from LifeZette, occasional offers from our partners and that you've read and agree to our privacy policy and legal statement.

Related: Trump-Bannon Family Feud Buoys Dems

“Regardless of whether or not there’s a lawsuit, they should be concerned about peddling fake stories,” Sanders said. “They should be concerned about putting out information that’s not true. They should be concerned about the fact that we’re spending all of our time here focused on talking about this instead of things that people in this country think about.”

“I’m not going to waste my time or the country’s time going page by page talking about a book that’s complete fantasy.”

During the course of the briefing, Sanders refuted the claims made in Wolff’s book, telling reporters that the book is “sad” and “pathetic.”

“There are numerous mistakes, but I’m not going to waste my time or the country’s time going page by page talking about a book that’s complete fantasy and full of tabloid gossip,” Sanders said.

PoliZette writer Kathryn Blackhurst can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter.