Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 192
November Surprises
Sean Spicer joined White House press corp at today’s coronavirus task force briefing by taking the Newsmax seat in briefing room, the Daily Mail reports.
Spicer has a show on the conservative network.
Kelly O’Donnell: “It is simply not appropriate for the former press secretary to sit among journalists to ask questions of the president he served. The door between politics and media sometimes revolves but it is not appropriate to question one’s former boss.”
Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer will compete in the upcoming season of “Dancing With the Stars,” Politico reports.
Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer “has signed a contract to serve as a special correspondent for syndicated newsmagazine show Extra,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.
He “is beginning with a special series that focuses on the personal lives and views of D.C. insiders, including” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday, Kellyanne Conway on Thursday, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Friday.
“A black man yelled at former White House press secretary Sean Spicer in a bookstore and accused Spicer of calling him a racial slur when they were students at a prep school decades ago,” the AP reports.
Said the man: “You don’t remember that you tried to fight me? But you called me a (N-word) first.”
A security guard led the man away as he kept talking: “I was 14 then. I was a scared kid then, Sean. I’m not scared to fight you now.”
The Newport Daily News has the incident on video.
“It was the start of the most corrosive culture. You played with the truth. You led us down a dangerous path. You have corrupted discourse for the entire world by going along with these lies.”
Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer has a new book in which he contradicts President Trump’s assertion that Paul Manafort played a minor role in the presidential campaign, the Guardian reports.
Writes Spicer: “Paul brought a much-needed maturity to the Trump campaign when it needed an experienced political professional operative more than anything else. There was no semblance of a campaign structure, just a few, distraught, overworked people constantly barking into their phones. Paul immediately set up and staffed the political and communications operations necessary to take on the Clinton machine.”
He added: “The Manafort message was clear: Trump will be our nominee and our next president, and anyone who didn’t want to work to that end could spend the next four years in political Siberia. (No Russia pun intended.)”
“Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti turned down $2,500 to tape an interview with former White House press secretary Sean Spicer,” the New York Post reports.
“Avenatti, President Trump’s most persistent critic, was asked to be a guest on the pilot of ‘Sean Spicer’s Common Ground’ to be shot in July.”
CNN reporter Jim Acosta told CNN that he turned down a request to appear on former White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s new talk show.
Said Acosta: “We politely turned that down.”
He added: “My sense of it is that Sean has crossed the line from being somebody who was a former press secretary to somebody who wants to resurrect his career and go on Fox News and bash CNN. And if he’s going to do that, I don’t think we should give him time to do that.”
“Sean Spicer, arguably the world’s most famous White House press secretary, is developing a talk show with the tentative title of ‘Sean Spicer’s Common Ground,’ in which the former spokesman for President Trump interviews notable people in an informal setting,” the New York Times reports.
“A pitch sheet for the show’s pilot, obtained by The New York Times, describes Mr. Spicer hosting ‘some of the most interesting and thoughtful public figures for a drink and some lite conversation at a local pub or cafe.'”
Out this summer: The Briefing by Sean Spicer.
“Sean Spicer takes readers behind the scenes of his turbulent tenure as President Trump’s press secretary, shedding new light on the headline-grabbing controversies of the Trump administration’s first year.”
“I regret things that I did that brought embarrassment to myself, my family, friends of mine who have been very big supporters.”
— Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, quoted by The Hill, on working for President Trump.
Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer is writing a book to “set the record straight” about what he says happened during the 2016 election, transition and his time serving in the administration, CNN reports.
Said Spicer: “I looked back at the coverage of the campaign, the transition in the first six, seven months of this White House, I realized the stories that are being told are not an accurate representation of what President Trump went through to get the nomination, to transition to the White House and then his first six months in office.”
A new book out next month — Let Trump Be Trump by Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie — says that Sean Spicer was never a true Trump believer, revealing the now ex-White House press secretary was shopping for TV jobs even before the 2016 election, the Daily Mail reports.
“In the first chapter, they lay out who they consider Trump’s friends and foes, characterizing Spicer and other Trump team members who came from the Republican National Committee, including Reince Priebus and Katie Walsh, as the latter.”
“At first, Sean Spicer’s exit from the White House followed the blueprint for famous administration officials,” BuzzFeed News reports.
“Step one: Hire mega lawyer/agent Bob Barnett, who has represented presidents and their operatives in lucrative deals, from Barack Obama and David Axelrod to George W. Bush and Karl Rove. Step two: Make the rounds at various TV networks, where a contributor job can yield reliable, high-profile income.”
“But step three — landing the plush TV deal — never happened.”
“Now Spicer and Barnett, who seeks to uphold a reputation as the preeminent talent broker in Washington, are both distancing themselves from one another, according to sources familiar with the matter.”
Sean Spicer met with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team on Monday for an interview that lasted much of the day, Politico reports.
“During his sitdown, Spicer was grilled about the firing of former FBI director James Comey and his statements regarding the firing, as well as about Trump’s meetings with Russians officials including one with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the Oval Office.”
Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer “has tapped Chris Mead, a high-powered criminal defense attorney based, to handle issues related to the special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, the Daily Beast reports.
“Spicer will need legal help for the probe. Axios reported last week that he took detailed notes throughout the presidential campaign, which may be of great interest and use to Mueller and his team of investigators.”
Politico: “Washington routinely forgives its philanderers, drug addicts and alcoholics, embezzlers, perjurers, bribers and bribees, liars, burglars and tax evaders, granting them the redemption of another term in office or a job in a lobbying shop or think tank after their scandal passes. It even absolved a drunk who killed a young lady, giving him a prince’s funeral when he died. The writer who said that there are no second acts in American life never lived here.”
“But that iron law hasn’t helped Spicer. Since leaving the White House this summer, he has gained admittance to a circle of one: He has become a Washington pariah. Nobody wants to be anywhere near him, but everyone wants to talk smack about him. He’s not just a punchline. He’s become a national laughing stock ever since his cameo on the Emmy Awards this week, where he attempted a joke about his most famous White House lie.”
Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer acknowledged to ABC News that he’s “made mistakes,” but says that for those who “want some blanket apology — that’s not happening.”
Spicer added that he “tried to own” some of his mistakes, but said that “the personal attacks, questioning my integrity … you know, what my intentions were, I think, were really over the top.”
When asked if he had ever lied to the American people, Spicer responded: “I don’t think so.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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