Spicer Shuts Down Press Briefing Following Questions About His International Incident
Source: mediamatters.org
3 hours 43 min ago ››› MATT GERTZ
White House press secretary Sean Spicer shut down today’s press briefing after he was asked about the international incident he caused last week by reading a Fox News transcript that accused a British intelligence service of spying on President Donald Trump last year on behalf of then-President Barack Obama.
Last week, the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees publicly acknowledged that they have seen no evidence to support Trump’s claim that Obama wiretapped Trump Tower during the presidential election. In an effort to defuse the situation during the March 16 press briefing, Spicer read aloud from a series of news articles that he falsely claimed supported Trump’s statement. This included Fox senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano’s March 13 statement on Fox & Friends that, according to “three intelligence sources,” Obama relied on “GCHQ,” the “British spying agency,” to obtain transcripts of “conversations involving President-elect Trump” with “no American fingerprints on this.”
The comments generated a “diplomatic row,” which Spicer reportedly tried to contain by contacting Britain's U.S. ambassador.
Roughly 45 minutes into today’s briefing, National Journal’s George Condon raised the issue, asking Spicer if reporters could assume that when he reads news articles from the White House podium, he is “vouching for the accuracy of those articles.” This was a clear reference to Spicer’s Thursday recitation of Napolitano’s claim. Spicer replied that this was a “silly assertation (sic)” and that “reading a story ... is not vouching for it.”
Condon followed up, asking Spicer to discuss his conversation with the British following those comments. Spicer replied, “There was merely an explanation of what we did and why we did it, which is what I just said to you. And that was it. Simply that.” And then Spicer ended the briefing before any other reporters could ask the press secretary more questions about the incident.
Since Spicer’s March 16 briefing:
The British intelligence service has denied the charge..............
Read more: https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2017/03/20/spicer-shuts-down-press-briefing-following-questions-about-his-international-incident/215762
Past time for Sean to get out of the kitchen!
Link to tweet
Edin @EdinBrook16 23m23 minutes ago
@mmfa @PrincessBravato Spicer shut it down and took his ball home. He's gonna hide from big bully journalists doing their jobs.
0 replies 1 retweet 2 likes
kathe roth @katolbo 25m25 minutes ago
@mmfa And mind you, the offending question was from the National Journal, not the WashPost...
0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
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I sure hope so!
Just look at tha bones!!
Why is that not surprising?
What - you actually expect someone to answer questions at a press conference? 
Spicer can keep his bullshit straight, even with the facts catching him in his daily lies.
I'm waiting for Spicey to breakdown in one of his Conferences and just say "Fuck it, I'm going mad shoveling this bullshit out every day."
And then he just walks out. 
