How the press, the Easter bunny, and SNL shaped Spicer’s tenure
How the press, the Easter bunny, and SNL shaped Spicer’s tenure, Sean Spicer made it exactly six months and part of one day as President Donald J. Trump’s spokesman before resigning Friday.
How the press, the Easter bunny, and SNL shaped Spicer’s tenure, Sean Spicer made it exactly six months and part of one day as President Donald J. Trump’s spokesman before resigning Friday.
But thanks to a mix of combativeness with the press, awkward moments caught on camera, and a late night TV doppelganger, Spicer may have become as famous as his old boss.
With Spicer’s departure, here’s a look back at six of the strangest moments that shaped his time as press secretary.
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| How the press, the Easter bunny, and SNL shaped Spicer’s tenure |
“This was the largest audience to witness an inauguration, period”
Spicer set the tone for his tenure as the Trump White House spokesman during his very first press conference in January, the Saturday after Trump took office. He took no questions and instead lambasted reporters with accusations of false reporting on the size of the crowds during Trump’s inauguration.
Spicer put forth a claim that has repeated exhaustively by Trump since: that record numbers of people attended Trump’s inaugural.
“This was the largest audience to witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the world,” Spicer said. “These attempts to lessen the enthusiasm of the inauguration are shameful and wrong.”
Factchecking of the crowd size after the fact proved Trump -- and Spicer -- wrong.
Hitler “didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons”
Spicer was severely criticized for in April after he made an awkward comparison between Adolf Hitler and Syrian leader Bashar Assad, saying that Hitler did not gas his own people.
“You had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons,” Spicer said during a televised press briefing from the West Wing of the White House.
Spicer also took flak for referring to Nazi concentration camps, where millions were put to death, as “Holocaust centers.”
Hitler did, in fact, use chemical weapons, Spicer later apologized for the erroneous statements.
About those bushes...
Trump had just fired former FBI Director James Comey earlier in the day on May 9, and Spicer and his team had been scrambling to explain the move to reporters.
After wrapping up an on-camera interview with Fox Business on the White House grounds that evening, Spicer and members of his staff disappeared among the nearby bushes for several minutes, the Washington Post reported.
An assistant to Spicer emerged first, telling a group of reporters he would answer questions so long as he was not filmed doing so.
‘‘Just turn the lights off. Turn the lights off,’’ he ordered reporters, after emerging. ‘‘We’ll take care of this... Can you just turn that light off?’’
After taking questions for 10 minutes, Spicer stopped abruptly.
‘‘Anyway,’’ Spicer said, before returning to the White House, ‘‘thank you, guys.’’
Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer on Saturday Night Live
Sure, this isn’t exactly something Spicer did himself. But Trump’s first press secretary might have remained an obscure figure in the Trump administration, known only to political geeks and reporters, if not for Melissa McCarthy’s parody of the former press secretary on “Saturday Night Live.”
McCarthy’s Spicer was a combative, abrasive figure that badgered and insulted reporters, drawing a water pistol and, later on, a motorized version of the podium used by Spicer when taking questions from the press.
Trump reportedly hated the satire of his spokesman. Spicer, for his part, thought McCarthy needed to slow down on the gum chewing. “Way too many pieces in there,” he said.
With Spicer gone, no word if we’ve seen the last of McCarthy’s impression.
Gronk being Gronk (at the White House)
It wasn’t all controversy for the press secretary.
Spicer, who is a huge New England Patriots fan, was working the day the team visited the White House to meet with Trump.
During that day’s press conference, Spicer got a (potentially staged, but still fun) offer of help dealing with the press from Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski.
“Need some help?” Gronkowski asked, sneaking in to the briefing, as journalists began laughing.
“I think I got this, but thank you,” Spicer replied with a smile.
“You sure?” Gronkowski asked.
“Maybe.”
Gronkowski gave Spicer a thumbs-up sign before ducking back out of the room.
“Thanks man, I’ll see you in a minute,” the press secretary said.
Spicer, a Rhode Island native, has let slip his Patriots fandom during at least one press conference, when he joked about quarterback Tom Brady.
That Easter bunny costume
Spicer’s most photographed moment may have taken place a decade before he took the press secretary job. Back then, during his first turn in the White House, he worked for the George W. Bush administration.
That’s when that infamous photo of Spicer dressed as the White House Easter bunny was taken (and later gained immortality thanks to social media).
Sean Spicer used to play the Easter Bunny at the White House easter egg roll. (H/T @Rschooley)
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