Spicer's glowing review of Trump's 'incredible' trip abroad collides with reality in the briefing

Kerry Eleveld

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday May 30, 2017 · 12:56 PM PDT

2017/05/30 · 12:56

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 16: White House press secretary Sean Spicer listens to questions from reporters during a press briefing at the White House May 16, 2017 in Washington, DC. McMaster defended the President Donald Trump's decision to share intelligence with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during an Oval Office meeting last week. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

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Let’s begin by recapping the unprecedented level of sycophantic BS that flowed from Sean Spicer's lips during the first 10-plus minutes of Tuesday’s White House briefing. Cue Spicey:

I want to begin by recapping the incredible, historic trip that the president and first lady have just concluded because it truly was an extraordinary week for America and our people. [...] It was an unprecedented first trip abroad. [...] We've never seen before at this point in a presidency such sweeping reassurance of American interests and the inauguration of a foreign policy strategy designed to bring back the world from growing dangers and perpetual disasters brought on by years of failed leadership. [...] The leaders of more than 50 Arab Muslim nations was a historic turning point that people will be talking about for many years to come. [...] The president's historic speech was met with nearly universal praise. [...] This was a historic event [...] The president then went to Israel where he was received with incredible warmth [...] and gave a highly praised address at the Israel museum [...] This was an extraordinarily successful nine-day trip the president took.

Got that? Trump overwhelmed the world and, frankly, the language of mere mortals fails to capture what extraordinarily aaahmaaaaazing successes Trump pulled off overseas. But dammit, Spicey sure tried. Now, to the questions about all that winning. Cue question one:

To the issue of the Russia probe, I'm wondering, Sean, if you can tell us when the president knew — whether the president knew at the time that Jared Kushner was seeking to establish back channel communications at the Russian embassy to the Russian government, and if he didn't know at the time, when did he find out?

Huh, press isn't interested in all that overseas winning. Yeah, that's because whatever the White House imagined to have happened abroad, here at home the Trump administration is imploding under the weight of the Trump-Russia scandal.

The lines of questioning from reporters generally fell into three catagories: Russia/Kushner scandal (five questions); Trump's failing legislative agenda including tax reform, health care (six questions); souring relations with our Western European allies, Germany being at the top of the list (three questions).

All this reality was a little much for Spicey, who abruptly ended the press conference after he complained about all the "fake news" stories from the media and the only evidence he could provide was a tweet from one New York Times reporter.

So after 30 short minutes—a third of which were consumed by his opening statement—Spicey decided to call it quits, a little like an amateur stand up says their time's up and runs off stage when the jokes are bombing.

This may be our new normal: When the White House version of reality collides with actual reality, the discussion will simply be over. That was the takeaway from a White House that's now under the klieg lights of an all-consuming investigation that it will label "fake news" right up until the bitter end.

Watch the final minutes of the briefing below.

YouTube Video

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