Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at a rally with supporters in Council Bluffs, Iowa, September 28, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/Aly Song/File Photos
White House press secretary sean spicer shut down speculation that President Trump"s emotional reaction to the chemical weapons attack that killed 80 in Syria last week had altered the administration"s stance on Syrian refugees.
In response to a question from a reporter about whether Trump was rethinking his travel ban"sstipulation barring Syrian refugees from entering the US, Spicer began, "I think you"ve heard a lot of these refugees talk about the fact in particular that they"re not looking to flee" Syria.
When reporters specified that the question was with regardto those who did want to leave the war-torn country, he said that the administration"s priority was to protect Americans" safety and to create a situation in which Syrians did not have to flee their home country.
"That"s our number one goal: creating a safer environment, deescalating the conflict there," Spicer said. "The goal isn"t to figure out how many people we can just import to this country."
Despite his assertion that Trump had been "touched" by images of victims of the chemical weapons, he implied that the attackwould not prompt a change in US policy towards accepting Syrian refugees.
"They have touched him, and I think that"s what he made very clear. That"s why, with the consent and guidance of his national security team" Trump ordered a military strike targeting the airfield from which the chemical weapons had been deployed, Spicer said.
"It was very extreme, it was moving. I don"t think you can watch those things ... when you see young children and babies being gassed, it should move any human being," he added, before saying that images of young children and babies who had been injured or killed as a result of the attack had played a role in Trump"s final decision to authorize the strike.
Sean Spicer: John Lewis" Remarks On Donald Trump Are Disappointing | Morning Joe | MSNBC
If only White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer had stuck with his strong material. In the beginning of his appearance at the White House briefing room on Saturday afternoon, Spicer took aim at Time magazine White House correspondent Zeke Miller. On duty on Inauguration Day as a pool reporter, Miller concluded that the new occupant of the White House had removed a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. He fed that information into the pool report, and others tweeted out the information.
Which turned out to be wrong.
This was irresponsible and reckless, said Spicer at his appearance. Fair point. Donald Trump, after all, came to power in part by exploiting racial divisions in the United States. He was appropriately denounced as a bigot and a racist. To report that hed booted a bust of King from the Oval Office would surely help to cement his history.
Yet Spicer wasnt content to stop there, while he was ahead. Among Trump folks, bashing the media is such a compulsion as to rule out quitting while youre ahead.
from firm ground, spicer fled to brown ground the wintry fields of the Mall, where, he maintained, a record crowd had amassed on the previous day for the presidents inaugural address. This was the first time in our nations history that floor coverings have been used to protect the grass on the Mall. That had the effect of highlighting any areas where people were not standing, while in years past the grass eliminated this visual, said Spicer, in accounting for why people had reached the conclusion that previous inaugurals had attracted crowds greater than the one at Trumps. This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration period both in person and around the globe, said Spicer.
With that, the U.S. media switched into a familiar mode from the 2016 campaign, that of churning out fact-checks of very easily disprovable statements of falsity. The Associated Press ruled that Spicer had added to the misstatements of his own boss regarding crowd size. Noting that Spicer had offered no evidence for his largest-ever inauguration contention, the AP wrote, photos taken during Barack Obamas 2009 inauguration showed substantially more people on the Mall. Also wrong was the contention about floor coverings, not to mention a separate claim about magnetometers.
In a particularly clumsy barb, Spicer said this: Even the New York Times printed a photograph showing a misrepresentation of the crowd in the original Tweet in their paper, which showed the full extent of the support, depth in crowd, and intensity that existed, he said. What did that mean? When the Erik Wemple Blog asked the newspaper about the matter, it replied that it wasnt sure what Spicer was addressing. And since he never took any questions at the briefing, it was hard to tell.
A spokeswoman for the paper noted that Times reporter Binyamin Appelbaum had issued this much-trafficked tweet:
According to the Times, there is nothing inaccurate in that tweet whatsoever.
Perhaps this is the better photo to which Spicer referred:
In any case, Appelbaum didnt need terribly sophisticated people-counting technology to debunk the idea that Fridays event was the highest-attended inauguration ever.
The job of White House press secretary is a difficult one. The challenge is to stand at the podium and represent the thoughts and vision of the president of the United States, to stand in for an officeholder busy with meetings and travel and more meetings. On the first full day of the Trump administration, Spicer did this to perfection, representing in one six-minute session the penchant for falsehood and mendacity that Trump displayed throughout the presidential campaign.
Would that betrayal of the truth were the only offense that Spicer committed from the podium. It wasnt. After he slammed media organizations for their responsible reporting of the turnout for the Trump inauguration, he said, These attempts to lessen the enthusiasm of the inauguration are shameful and wrong. For those worried that the Trump years might just corrode democracy and open the way to authoritarianism, heres an early signpost: Crime against the State No. 1: No citizen shall attempt to lessen the enthusiasm of the inauguration of the Supreme Leader.
It stands to reason that Spicer & Co. would have to fabricate a case against inaugural shrinkage. The bill of particulars against Miller, after all, wasnt sufficiently sweeping to justify an entire session dedicated to hammering the media. More was needed in order to ramp up this warning from Spicer: Theres been a lot of talk in the media about the responsibility to hold Donald Trump accountable. And Im here to tell you that it goes two ways. Were going to hold the press accountable, as well, he said.
Thus went Spicers fulfillment of the Trump administrations brand promise. Sure, Trump as presidential candidate spoke about a wall, an end to Obamacare, a return of jobs to the United States. He was most consistent, however, on the media bashing it, banning it, scaring it, tweeting about it. Even if Miller had avoided his bust mistake, and even if the media had raved about inaugural attendance, its a fair bet that Spicer would have found cause to deliver the same message. The idea, it appears at this early stage, is not so much to answer the medias questions as it is to discredit them before theyre even asked.
Updated to include another tweet from Times Miller.
FULL White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer ABSOLUTELY RIPS APART Media Lies About Donald Trump!!!
If only White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer had stuck with his strong material. In the beginning of his appearance at the White House briefing room on Saturday afternoon, Spicer took aim at Time magazine White House correspondent Zeke Miller. On duty on Inauguration Day as a pool reporter, Miller concluded that the new occupant of the White House had removed a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. He fed that information into the pool report, and others tweeted out the information.
Which turned out to be wrong.
This was irresponsible and reckless, said Spicer at his appearance. Fair point. Donald Trump, after all, came to power in part by exploiting racial divisions in the United States. He was appropriately denounced as a bigot and a racist. To report that hed booted a bust of King from the Oval Office would surely help to cement his history.
Yet Spicer wasnt content to stop there, while he was ahead. Among Trump folks, bashing the media is such a compulsion as to rule out quitting while youre ahead.
From firm ground, Spicer fled to brown ground the wintry fields of the Mall, where, he maintained, a record crowd had amassed on the previous day for the presidents inaugural address. This was the first time in our nations history that floor coverings have been used to protect the grass on the Mall. That had the effect of highlighting any areas where people were not standing, while in years past the grass eliminated this visual, said Spicer, in accounting for why people had reached the conclusion that previous inaugurals had attracted crowds greater than the one at Trumps. This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration period both in person and around the globe, said Spicer.
With that, the U.S. media switched into a familiar mode from the 2016 campaign, that of churning out fact-checks of very easily disprovable statements of falsity. The Associated Press ruled that Spicer had added to the misstatements of his own boss regarding crowd size. Noting that Spicer had offered no evidence for his largest-ever inauguration contention, the AP wrote, photos taken during Barack Obamas 2009 inauguration showed substantially more people on the Mall. Also wrong was the contention about floor coverings, not to mention a separate claim about magnetometers.
In a particularly clumsy barb, Spicer said this: Even the New York Times printed a photograph showing a misrepresentation of the crowd in the original Tweet in their paper, which showed the full extent of the support, depth in crowd, and intensity that existed, he said. What did that mean? When the Erik Wemple Blog asked the newspaper about the matter, it replied that it wasnt sure what Spicer was addressing. And since he never took any questions at the briefing, it was hard to tell.
A spokeswoman for the paper noted that Times reporter Binyamin Appelbaum had issued this much-trafficked tweet:
According to the Times, there is nothing inaccurate in that tweet whatsoever.
Perhaps this is the better photo to which Spicer referred:
In any case, Appelbaum didnt need terribly sophisticated people-counting technology to debunk the idea that Fridays event was the highest-attended inauguration ever.
The job of White House press secretary is a difficult one. The challenge is to stand at the podium and represent the thoughts and vision of the president of the United States, to stand in for an officeholder busy with meetings and travel and more meetings. On the first full day of the Trump administration, Spicer did this to perfection, representing in one six-minute session the penchant for falsehood and mendacity that Trump displayed throughout the presidential campaign.
Would that betrayal of the truth were the only offense that spicer committed from the podium. it wasnt. after he slammed media organizations for their responsible reporting of the turnout for the Trump inauguration, he said, These attempts to lessen the enthusiasm of the inauguration are shameful and wrong. For those worried that the Trump years might just corrode democracy and open the way to authoritarianism, heres an early signpost: Crime against the State No. 1: No citizen shall attempt to lessen the enthusiasm of the inauguration of the Supreme Leader.
It stands to reason that Spicer & Co. would have to fabricate a case against inaugural shrinkage. The bill of particulars against Miller, after all, wasnt sufficiently sweeping to justify an entire session dedicated to hammering the media. More was needed in order to ramp up this warning from Spicer: Theres been a lot of talk in the media about the responsibility to hold Donald Trump accountable. And Im here to tell you that it goes two ways. Were going to hold the press accountable, as well, he said.
Thus went Spicers fulfillment of the Trump administrations brand promise. Sure, Trump as presidential candidate spoke about a wall, an end to Obamacare, a return of jobs to the United States. He was most consistent, however, on the media bashing it, banning it, scaring it, tweeting about it. Even if Miller had avoided his bust mistake, and even if the media had raved about inaugural attendance, its a fair bet that Spicer would have found cause to deliver the same message. The idea, it appears at this early stage, is not so much to answer the medias questions as it is to discredit them before theyre even asked.
Sean Spicer Brutally Educates CNN"s Alisyn Camerota On How To Gather Facts
If only White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer had stuck with his strong material. In the beginning of his appearance at the White House briefing room on Saturday afternoon, Spicer took aim at Time magazine White House correspondent Zeke Miller. On duty on Inauguration Day as a pool reporter, Miller concluded that the new occupant of the White House had removed a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. He fed that information into the pool report, and others tweeted out the information.
Which turned out to be wrong.
This was irresponsible and reckless, said Spicer at his appearance. Fair point. Donald Trump, after all, came to power in part by exploiting racial divisions in the United States. He was appropriately denounced as a bigot and a racist. To report that hed booted a bust of King from the Oval Office would surely help to cement his history.
Yet Spicer wasnt content to stop there, while he was ahead. Among Trump folks, bashing the media is such a compulsion as to rule out quitting while youre ahead.
From firm ground, Spicer fled to brown ground the wintry fields of the Mall, where, he maintained, a record crowd had amassed on the previous day for the presidents inaugural address. This was the first time in our nations history that floor coverings have been used to protect the grass on the Mall. That had the effect of highlighting any areas where people were not standing, while in years past the grass eliminated this visual, said Spicer, in accounting for why people had reached the conclusion that previous inaugurals had attracted crowds greater than the one at Trumps. This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration period both in person and around the globe, said Spicer.
With that, the U.S. media switched into a familiar mode from the 2016 campaign, that of churning out fact-checks of very easily disprovable statements of falsity. The Associated Press ruled that Spicer had added to the misstatements of his own boss regarding crowd size. Noting that Spicer had offered no evidence for his largest-ever inauguration contention, the AP wrote, photos taken during Barack Obamas 2009 inauguration showed substantially more people on the Mall. Also wrong was the contention about floor coverings, not to mention a separate claim about magnetometers.
In a particularly clumsy barb, Spicer said this: Even the New York Times printed a photograph showing a misrepresentation of the crowd in the original Tweet in their paper, which showed the full extent of the support, depth in crowd, and intensity that existed, he said. What did that mean? When the Erik Wemple Blog asked the newspaper about the matter, it replied that it wasnt sure what Spicer was addressing. And since he never took any questions at the briefing, it was hard to tell.
A spokeswoman for the paper noted that Times reporter Binyamin Appelbaum had issued this much-trafficked tweet:
According to the Times, there is nothing inaccurate in that tweet whatsoever.
Perhaps this is the better photo to which Spicer referred:
In any case, Appelbaum didnt need terribly sophisticated people-counting technology to debunk the idea that Fridays event was the highest-attended inauguration ever.
The job of White House press secretary is a difficult one. The challenge is to stand at the podium and represent the thoughts and vision of the president of the United States, to stand in for an officeholder busy with meetings and travel and more meetings. On the first full day of the Trump administration, Spicer did this to perfection, representing in one six-minute session the penchant for falsehood and mendacity that Trump displayed throughout the presidential campaign.
Would that betrayal of the truth were the only offense that Spicer committed from the podium. It wasnt. After he slammed media organizations for their responsible reporting of the turnout for the Trump inauguration, he said, These attempts to lessen the enthusiasm of the inauguration are shameful and wrong. For those worried that the Trump years might just corrode democracy and open the way to authoritarianism, heres an early signpost: Crime against the State No. 1: No citizen shall attempt to lessen the enthusiasm of the inauguration of the Supreme Leader.
would have to fabricate a case against inaugural shrinkage. The bill of particulars against Miller, after all, wasnt sufficiently sweeping to justify an entire session dedicated to hammering the media. More was needed in order to ramp up this warning from Spicer: Theres been a lot of talk in the media about the responsibility to hold Donald Trump accountable. And Im here to tell you that it goes two ways. Were going to hold the press accountable, as well, he said.
Thus went Spicers fulfillment of the Trump administrations brand promise. Sure, Trump as presidential candidate spoke about a wall, an end to Obamacare, a return of jobs to the United States. He was most consistent, however, on the media bashing it, banning it, scaring it, tweeting about it. Even if Miller had avoided his bust mistake, and even if the media had raved about inaugural attendance, its a fair bet that Spicer would have found cause to deliver the same message. The idea, it appears at this early stage, is not so much to answer the medias questions as it is to discredit them before theyre even asked.
RNC Communications Director Sean Spicer on FNC"s "America"s Newsroom"
President-elect Donald Trump has named close adviser Kellyanne Conway as his White House counselor, elevating the woman who led his campaign to victory to a senior West Wing position.
Trump who also announced his senior White House communications staff, including naming former Republican National Committee spokesman sean spicer as press secretary has a strong rapport with Conway and she was seen as a positive influence on his often chaotic campaign. Conway, who took over as campaign manager in the summer, has been one of Trump"s most visible advisers, making frequent television appearances on his behalf.
"She is a tireless and tenacious advocate of my agenda and has amazing insights on how to effectively communicate our message," Trump said in a statement Thursday announcing the position.
Trump is creating another power center in the West Wing by tapping Conway for the senior White House role.
He"s already named outgoing Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus as his chief of staff and conservative media executive Steve Bannon as a senior adviser. Trump"s son-in-law Jared Kushner will also be an influential adviser, though his exact role is still to be determined.
Internal rivalries have long been a hallmark of Trump"s businesses and campaign as well as his transition team. Conway and Priebus have been at odds over some major decisions, including who should serve as Trump"s secretary of state. He ultimately chose Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson.
Conway irritated some Trump aides with her outspoken opposition to the prospect of the president-elect picking Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, to head the State Department. She panned the idea in public, though she said she had also made her feelings known to Trump privately.
Conway, a longtime Republican pollster, considered not joining the White House staff and turned down offers to serve in a communications role. She also expressed a desire to help Trump set up an outside political organization to promote his agenda.
Conway said Thursday that she was "humbled and honored to play a role in helping transform the movement he has led into a real agenda of action and results."
Meanwhile, Spicer"s elevation was championed by Priebus, his longtime ally at the RNC. Additionally, the transition team announced that Jason Miller will be the director of communications. Hope Hicks, the longtime campaign spokeswoman, was appointed Director of Strategic Communications while Dan Scavino will be Director of Social Media.
Hicks and Scavino were original members of Trump"s skeletal staff, joining the Republican businessman"s campaign in its early days. Miller joined after Trump became the presumptive nominee.
