Sean Spicer: Trump is immune from punishment for sexual harassment because voters are ‘the HR department’

Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer argued recently that President Donald Trump would not need to be disciplined for alleged sexual harassment because voters are the real human resources department for elected officials.

The remarks came at a conference for HR professionals in Washington, D.C., BuzzFeed reported on Wednesday.

“Elected people are in a very unique position because the people elected them into office,” Spicer said. “That is the HR department, so to speak.”

In the run-up to and since the 2016 election, Trump was accused of sexual misconduct by at least 16 women. Several of the women described what appeared to be sexual assaults.

Other speakers at the conference for HR professionals took a tone that was more progressive than Spicer's.

“Culture is at the root of this," former HR executive Johnny Taylor said. "I can train all day, I could take my former management team and give them an hour a week of sexual harassment training, and that would not eliminate sexual harassment in the workplace."

The conference also focused on former Attorney General Eric Holder's report on gender discrimination at Uber. The Holder report warns managers not to let high performers off the hook.

“If rock star culture means ‘behave badly and we don’t do anything about it,’ don’t let it happen,” employment lawyer Brenda Kasper explained.