White House Calls Spicer 'Team Player' for Resignation

Sarah Huckabee Sanders named as Spicer's replacement
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 21, 2017 1:58 PM CDT
White House Calls Spicer 'Team Player' for Resignation
White House press secretary Sean Spicer walks down the hallway during President Donald Trump's visit to the Pentagon, Thursday, July 20, 2017.   (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

During the first White House press briefing since Sean Spicer's resignation—and first on-camera briefing this month—new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci named Sarah Huckabee Sanders as Spicer's permanent replacement for press secretary. Both Huckabee Sanders and Scaramucci had praise for "team player" Spicer and his decision to step down. Scaramucci said he hopes Spicer "goes on to make a tremendous amount of money." In a statement read by Huckabee Sanders, President Trump thanked Spicer for his service to the administration and touted his "great television ratings." More on Spicer's resignation:

  • While taking questions from reporters, Scaramucci declined to commit to on-camera briefings and had this to say when asked, "Is it your commitment to give accurate information?" Scaramucci: "I sort of feel like I don't even have to answer that question."

  • In his first tweet since resigning, Spicer said "it's been an honor & a privilege to serve @POTUS @realDonaldTrump & this amazing country." He said he's going to stay on as press secretary through August.
  • The Los Angeles Times states Spicer brought "memorable misspeaks and fantastic flubs" to the White House and lists some of hits big hits and misses, including making the false claim on his first day that Trump's "was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration. Period."
  • Rep. Maxine Waters congratulated Spicer following his resignation for having "more guts than Jeff Sessions," the Hill reports.
  • GQ notes that Spicer had a habit of making up words and presents them in both list and video form. Spicer's "alternative ABCs" include "grobe," "lasterday," and, of course, "inimpulintation."
  • The Washington Post reports five other press secretaries actually had shorter tenures than Spicer, though they typically had extenuating circumstances, such as being shot in the head or their president dying. However, Gerald Ford's press secretary resigned in protest after just 30 days when the president pardoned Richard Nixon.
  • Politico looks at what made Spicer "perhaps the most memorable of any press secretary in the position's long history," including his constant lying, an upside-down flag pin, his hiding amidst but not "in" the bushes, his missing out on meeting Pope Francis, and "Holocaust centers."
  • Spicer will give his first post-resignation interview to Sean Hannity on Friday night on Fox News, according to Fox News Insider.
  • The Daily Show tweeted a video recapping Spicer's six months as press secretary.
  • Politico has more on Anthony Scaramucci, the man whose hiring resulted in Spicer resigning, in a 2014 profile, calling him a "fast-talking hedge fund manager" known for "back-slapping braggadocio and shrewd marketing."
(More Sean Spicer stories.)

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