January 23, 2017

Liveblogging Sean Spicer’s First Press Briefing

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Sean Spicer is holding his first press conference today. The first three questions go to the New York Post, the Christian Broadcasting Network, and Fox News. They all ask softball questions.

How about those reports that US planes are attacking ISIS in collaboration with the Russians? Spicer refuses to deny it even though the Pentagon has already called the claim “rubbish.”

Finally someone asks about Spicer’s debacle on Saturday. It turns out that Spicer is upset about anyone questioning his integrity and claims that everything he said on Saturday was based on the best information at the time. Furthermore, he stands by his statement that Trump’s inauguration was the most watched of all time. Sure, Reagan had 41 million viewers, but Reagan didn’t have YouTube.1 Once you add in that, plus Facebook and smartphones and all that stuff, then Trump kicked Reagan’s ass, amirite?

Then Spicer refuses to say what the unemployment rate is. There’s a lot of different statistics out there, and anyway, Trump prefers to think of people, not faceless statistics. That’s just the kind of guy he is.

What is Trump going to do about climate change? “He’s going to meet with his team.”

What are Trump’s first three legislative priorities? Immigration, tax reform, regulatory reform. And that’s not just the wall, either. We need a complete immigration overhaul.

Trump has no immediate plans to revoke DACA, the “mini-DREAM” act signed by President Obama. I wonder what the immigration hawks think of this?

What kind of relationship does Trump plan with China? “He understands what a big market that is.” Okey doke.

Spicer is now denying that the cheers during Trump’s CIA speech were mostly coming from folks that he brought along. “Just listen to the cheers. It was more than a few people.”

I guess this could last forever, and I’m getting hungry. My professionalism has a limit, and it’s now been reached. Spicer is droning on about the perfidy of the press and how Trump always outperforms people’s expectations. Then we hear yet again about his outrage over the incorrect reporting regarding the MLK bust in the Oval Office. Spicer now claiming that Trump is treated way worse that any other president in history. Blah blah blah. That’s it for me.

1This is pretty much a direct quote: “Reagan didn’t have YouTube.”

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate