Back from the president’s first foreign trip, White House press secretary Sean Spicer returned to the briefing room disputing reports that there is going to be a shakeup in the White House communications team and again used the term “fake news” to describe recent reporting about the president.
“When you see stories get perpetuated that are absolutely false, that are not based in fact, that is troubling,” Spicer said. That led CNN’s Jim Acosta to ask Spicer to cite a case of fake news from the president’s trip.
“Sure,” said Spicer, “On Friday the president was having a great discussion at the G7 and someone from the BBC and ultimately an incoming reporter from The New York Times retweeted that the president was being rude by disrespecting the Italian prime minister. When in fact you all, in all of the meetings that we sit in, see the president with that one earpiece that has been used by all the presidents. And yet the president did a great job at NATO and building stronger bonds at the G7 and that’s the kind of thing that BBC and a reporter at The New York Times push out and perpetuate would no apology? That’s just fake.”
CBS’ Chip Reid jumped in adding, “Something significant though, that’s just some minor…”
“What? You get to decide what’s big and what’s not,” said Spicer. “When you see the same kind of thing happen over and over again, it is concerning,” said Spicer as he talked up the president’s accomplishments, then ended the briefing.
A bit earlier, Spicer called on Brian Karem, the executive editor of Sentinel Newspapers who asked, “will this administration take a stand against violence aimed at reporters?”
“We’ll take a stand against violence against any individual,” said Spicer.
