Sarah Huckabee Sanders just read a viral email forward from 2011 to reporters to explain the White House's position on tax reform

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders launched into her first press briefing Monday since early morning reports about Special Counsel Robert Mueller indictments with a convoluted story about — taxes? "I want to start the briefing today by addressing a topic I know all of you are preparing to ask me about," joked Sanders, "and that's tax reform."

In order to explain why tax reform is needed, Sanders gave an almost word-for-word recitation of a viral email forward that has been circulating since at least 2011. "Suppose that every day, 10 people — for our purposes, we'll say 'reporters' — go out for beer, and the bill for all 10 comes to $100," she began. "If these 10 reporters paid their tab every night the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this: The first four, the poorest, would pay nothing. The fifth would pay $1. The sixth would pay $3. The seventh would pay $7. The eighth would pay … "

Sanders quickly lost everyone:

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Watch the whole thing below. Jeva Lange