Sean Spicer just went way over the line with a veteran black female White House reporter
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer used his Tuesday press briefing to rail against reporters’ work as “illegal” and scolded a veteran White House reporter for apparently shaking her head as he once again avoided answering her question.
During the heated exchange, which began after journalist April Ryan, the Washington bureau chief for American Urban Radio Networks, asked how President Trump’s administration would “try to revamp its image” after two-and-a-half months marred by scandal, inaction, face-planting on policy, and investigations into Trump’s ties to Russia.
Spicer did not take kindly to the question, snapping back: “We don’t have that.”
“You’ve got Russia. If the President puts Russian salad dressing on his salad tonight, somehow that’s a Russia connection,” he snarked back.
Ryan, who’s been a journalist for 30 years and covered three presidential administrations at the White House, repeated tried to cut in to clarify or ask a follow-up, which only seemed to make Sean get even more Spicey.
“I’m sorry, please stop shaking your head again,” Spicer told Ryan.
Ryan made her feelings known in a tweet after the briefing.
In an interview with MSNBC after the run-in, Ryan said Spicer was doing his job–trying to smear lipstick on a pig–and she was today’s “roadkill.”
Plenty of others were outraged by Spicer’s treatment of Ryan.
You can watch the full exchange below: