White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer is no longer expected to deliver daily, on-camera briefings once Donald Trump returns from his first presidential trip overseas, Politico reports.
The decision comes after weeks of scandals engulfed the White House and derailed the president’s agenda. Just two weeks ago, on May 4th, the White House and House Republicans celebrated their first major legislative win with the passage of the American Health Care Act, holding a victory press conference in the Rose Garden.
In the weeks since, the Trump Administration has become all but consumed by multiple investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with Trump campaign associates. Those investigations reached a fever pitch last week, when the president abruptly fired former FBI Director James Comey. Though Trump’s communications team tried to blame Comey’s dismissal on his handling of the 2016 investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server, Trump himself contradicted that narrative when he told NBC’s Lester Holt his fired the FBI director because “this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.”
When news broke Monday that the president has revealed highly classified information during a closed-door meeting with the Russian ambassador and Russian foreign minister, Spicer, deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, chief White House strategist Steve Bannon, and White House Communications Director Michael Dubke reportedly engaged in a heated back-in-forth in the Cabinet Room of the White House, prompting staffers to turn up TV’s to drown out the screaming.
Politico reports that Trump has increasingly placed the blame for his flailing administration on the communications department. According to aides familiar with the president’s thinking, Spicer’s daily press briefings are “one of the most dreaded parts of of the president’s day,” in part because of the combative and “belligerent persona.” Sources told Politico Sanders will likely take the podium moving forward.
One official said the president is considering fewer on-camera briefings altogether, an idea he floated on Twitter last week when insisting he moves too quickly for his spokespeople to “accurately” answer questions for him.
In an interview with Jeanine Pirro that aired on Fox News last Saturday, Trump insisted Spicer is treated very unfairly, but stopped short of insisting he has confidence in the press secretary.
"He is a wonderful person, he is a nice man,” Trump said. “He just gets beat up by these people.”
One official told Politico Spicer is expected to stay in the administration, ”but have less exposure.”
"The status quo won't continue," another said.
