“Good afternoon”
We might be watching the death of the White House press briefing.
Or at least, its credibility.
This week, White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee scrambled to explain why Trump
fired FBI director James Comey -- who was in the middle of overseeing multiple investigations
into the Trump White House’s ties to Russia.
“The President, over the last several months, lost confidence in Director Comey.”
The official White House explanation was – and bear with me – that Trump fired Comey after
hearing from the Deputy Attorney General who raised concerns about Comey’s handling of
the Clinton emails during the campaign.
Got it?
No?
It’s okay, this whole story is a complete s***show.
Reporters were super skeptical of the White House’s explanation because it made no sense.
Trump repeatedly praised Comey’s handling of Clinton’s emails during the campaign.
“I have great respect for the FBI for righting this wrong.”
And he’s been president since January.
Why would he wait three months to fire Comey – in the middle of an investigation?
“What changed?”
But Huckabee was adamant:
“Isn’t it true that the President had already decided to fire James Comey, and he
asked the Justice Department to put together the rationale for that firing?
“No.”
She stood in front of reporters and insisted Trump fired Comey because of how he handled
Clinton’s emails.
“The basic… uh, atrocities, in circumventing the chain of command in the Department of
Justice.”
And he was only doing it now because he was convinced by the Deputy Attorney General.
“I think that was the final catalyst.”
And then, Trump ruined everything.
“What I did is – I was going to fire Comey.
My decision.”
Holt, NBC News: “You had made the decision before they came in the room.”
“I was going to fire Comey.”
And he fired him because he wasn’t happy with the FBI’s investigation into his Russia
ties.
“When I decided to just – I said to myself, you know,
this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story, it’s an excuse for Democrats
for having lost an election that they should have won.”
The whole saga reveals a basic problem with Trump spokespeople like Huckabee, Kellyanne
Conway and Sean Spicer -- they don’t actually speak for the president.
Conway says Trump has confidence in Michael Flynn:
“Yes, General Flynn does enjoy the full confidence of the president.”
Trump asks for his resignation.
Spicer says Trump has confidence in Comey:
“The president has confidence in the director.”
Trump says he’s wanted to fire him for a while:
“There’s no good time to do it, by the way.”
This is all really unusual -- the whole point of having a White House press shop is that
these spokespeople are expected to accurately reflect the views of the president.
But Huckabee admitted she didn’t even talk to Trump before speaking on his behalf about
Comey.
Even Trump admits reporters shouldn’t trust his spokespeople.
The day after his NBC interview he tweeted that we should cancel the White House press
briefing
and that no one should expect his spokespeople to be perfectly accurate because he’s very
busy.
And he’s not wrong – there is no credible White House press shop anymore.
The only person who speaks for Trump is Trump.
Everything else is damage control.