White House Press Secretary echoed President Trump's frustration and dismay with how the mainstream media has been covering his presidency, especially on the recent firing of former FBI Director James Comey. Spicer on Friday accused the press of turning daily briefings into a "game of gotcha", following the President's tweets about the media earlier.
Liberal mainstream media reported the supposed contradicting statements of the White House and Trump regarding the narrative and timeline of Comey's firing. Trump took to Twitter earlier to say that with so much happening under a very busy presidency, it is simply not possible for his staff to stand at podium with "perfect accuracy" and that perhaps it would be a better scenario for the White House to cancel all future press briefings and just hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy.
Reporters pressed Spicer for his reaction on Trump's tweets. Spicer opted not to comment whether Trump is really considering canceling the briefings. Spicer admitted, though, that Trump is dismayed about the press turning briefings into a "game of gotcha."
Spicer said that they come out there to meet the media and try to do everything and provide the press, as well as the American people, with what Trump is doing in behalf of the public, but that the press would rather focus on nitpicking. Spicer said that time and time again, there was always the attempt by media "to parse every little word and make it more of a game of gotcha." He said the more enlightening way would have been for the press to really try to figure out what the administration's policies are; focus on the more substantive matter of why such policies are being pursued; and aspire to be more informative by learning what the updates are on a given policy or issue. He also said that it's not only Trump, but a lot of people, as well, who are dismayed with the media's coverage and behavior.
To think that what the media is pointing as a "contradiction" in the narrative of Trump on the Comey firing with the benefit of just a bit of analysis, even of good common sense, would prove there's really no contradiction at all. The White House may have said earlier this week that Comey was fired only after the recommendations from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to do so came on Monday, after his meeting with Trump. Trump told NBC's Lester Holt in an interview that he would have fired Comey regardless of the recommendation.
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