With CNN comparing White House press secretary to Baghdad Bob after his five-minute statement on Saturday that was widely criticized for containing false claims (or "alternative facts"), Sean Spicer is set to give his first official press briefing for President Donald Trump this afternoon. We wish Spicer the best of luck in this potentially career-defining moment…
"I mean he has people comparing him to Baghdad Bob the first day in office, saying, 'I can't trust this guy,'" CNN media analyst Bill Carter noted.
Yesterday the NYT reported Spicer's performance before the press on Saturday had earned the ire of the president.
"[H]is appearance, according to the people familiar with Mr. Trump's thinking, went too far, in the president's opinion."
While the report is unconfirmed, it will be interesting to watch if Spicer is the first casualty of the Trump administration.
Putting everything else aside, I've had a few people close to Trump administration suggest this may have been a trap for the press sec.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 22, 2017
And for some humor before the Press Conference begins, here is The New Yorker's Andy Borowitz…
DISTURBED MAN GETS PAST WHITE HOUSE SECURITY, GIVES PRESS CONFERENCE
A man who was described as “visibly deranged” eluded the Secret Service on Saturday and gave a five-minute press conference at the White House.
The man, who somehow obtained White House credentials in order to bypass security, unloaded a delusional and paranoid rant that left a room full of experienced reporters shaken.
“We were all very, very scared,” Tracy Klugian, a reporter who witnessed the incident, said. “The things he was shouting made absolutely no sense, and he seemed to just get angrier and angrier.”
After a stream-of-consciousness tirade in which he accused the reporters of being part of a far-reaching conspiracy to distort reality, the man abruptly walked off “before he could do any real harm,” a Secret Service spokesman said.
Reporters who left the White House called the incident the scariest five minutes of their lives and said that they were grateful it did not escalate further.
“We were all terrified that, at some point, he was going to ask us if we had any questions,” Harland Dorrinson, a reporter, said. “None of us wanted to say anything that would set him off.”
Good luck Mr. Spicer, because as the Hill points out, if there was any doubt about the level of anticipation for White House press secretary Sean Spicer's first official briefing, look no further. The aisles and back rows of the James S. Brady Press Briefing room were filling up 45 minutes before the 1:30 briefing was set to begin.
WH briefing room already filling up for @PressSec's first official briefing http://pic.twitter.com/J9eTY5TYBp
— Jordan Fabian (@Jordanfabian) January 23, 2017
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