Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer acknowledges that during his tenure in the White House, President Donald Trump was often the last person he spoke to before facing the media and the first person he spoke to after his daily briefings.
Spicer called in to 710 WOR's Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning to talk about his new book The Briefing, how he'd like a do-over when it comes to his first press conference, the "fake news" media, the Trump/Cohen tapes, and resigning.
You can hear the full interview below or click here to listen.
Regarding his infamous first press conference the day after Trump's inauguration, Spicer still won't admit that he lied.
"I spend a significant amount of time in the book talking about this because I want people to understand just what was going through my head, what were the circumstances," Spicer said.
"I wholeheartedly would love a do-over of that day," he continued. "We were scrambling to push back on a narrative. I did my best — well, frankly, not my best."
Being the liaison between the President and the news media put Spicer in a tough position, he acknowledged. With Trump calling the biggest media outlets in the country "fake news" on an almost daily basis, Spicer's contentious relationship with reporters in the press room was unavoidable.
"My opinion has always been that, whether you're talking about any particular industry or entity, it's not always the best tactic to paint everybody with a broad brush because it throws the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak," Spicer said of Trump's incessant cries of "fake news."
"I actually in the book name reporters who I think do a very, very good job," he added. "Many of them, I don't agree with a lot of their stories but I think they are top-notch professionals that do a good job of trying to get it right, of acting in a professional manner, and as much as I sometimes don't like what they write or how they write it, I think they handle themselves in an unbelievably professional way, and are good standards for how people conduct themselves as journalists."
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