The Untold Truth Of Sean Spicer

Spicer quickly became a household name—and not for great reasons—thanks to his first official press conference, during which he alleged that Trump's inauguration drew the "largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period. Both in person and around the globe." Spicer's claims, dubbed "Spicergate" by Vox, were widely disputed by the press, leading top publications such as The New York Times to flat-out accuse him, and therefore the Trump administration, of lying.

Spicer stuck by his claims, later telling the press (via The Guardian): "Sometimes we can disagree with the facts." Trump senior advisor Kellyanne Conway also defended Spicer by referring to his statements as "alternative facts," which, yeah—we're just gonna leave that one be.

Even if the McCarthy impersonation did cause stress within the White House, at least in public, Spicer appeared to take the entire thing in stride. Speaking to Extra shortly after the skit aired, he quipped that McCarthy "needs to slow down on the gum chewing; way too many pieces in there." He also admitted the show was "funny" but told Extra the Oscar-nominated actress "could dial back" her impression of him.

In July 2017, Spicer again spoke about McCarthy's impression with Fox News' Sean Hannity (via CNN). "I think that there were some parts of it that were funny, but there's a lot of it that was over the line," he said. "It wasn't funny. It was stupid, or silly, or malicious ... I'm a prankster, I like a good joke. I think when it's funny, it's funny. Sometimes it goes from funny to mean."

In January 2017, as the Trump administration was settling into the White House, the internet discovered a tweet by Spicer that appeared to have been posted by mistake. Not the Anthony Weiner kind, but still, posting "n9y25ah7" to your thousands of followers is going to raise a few eyebrows, especially when you're the White House press secretary. This led publications such as GQ to speculate that maybe, just maybe, Spicer had tweeted his password. Other twitter users took a more humorous approach, pondering if Spicer had perhaps tweeted the nation's nuclear codes. At the time of this writing, the mystery of what "n9y25ah7" means remains unsolved. The country has since moved on to other tweets—like, you know, the ones posted by his boss.

He may love Orbit chewing gum, but Spicer apparently doesn't hold the same torch for the ice cream brand Dippin' Dots. In 2017, online sleuths uncovered tweets Spicer posted over the years debating if Dippin' Dots was actually the ice cream of the future. The discovery attracted so much press, Dippin' Dots wrote an open letter to Spicer and posted it on its website: "We've seen your tweets and would like to be friends rather than foes," the company's chief executive, Scott Fischer, wrote. "As you may or may not know, Dippin' Dots are made in Kentucky by hundreds of hard working Americans in the heartland of our great country. As a company, we're doing great. We've enjoyed double-digit growth in sales for the past three years. That means we're creating jobs and opportunities. We hear that's on your agenda too." Fischer closed with, "We can even afford to treat the White House and press corps to an ice cream social. What do you say?"

Being Trump's press secretary wasn't Spicer's first job at the White House. During the George W. Bush administration, Spicer would play the part of the Easter Bunny to entertain children during the White House Easter Egg Roll. While the Trump administration hit a few road bumps with its first Easter Egg Roll, notably when the president gave an odd stump speech to a group of grade schoolers, Spicer kept his sense of humor going and joked on Twitter, "The good ole days—what I would give to hide in a bunny costume again."

During a March 2017 press briefing, Spicer took the podium while wearing his American flag pin upside down, which has special significance. According to TIME, "The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property." Considering who Spicer works for, the jokes came fast and furious. Spicer took the ribbing like a champ, and clearly, he didn't mean to signal that he needed to be rescued from the White House. Or did he?

During a press briefing explaining Trump's orders to bomb Syria, Spicer made the odd decision to make Hitler look like a good guy. It was not the best move. According to The Guardian:, he tried to reinforce that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was a bad man by making him seem worse than Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. "We didn't use chemical weapons in World War Two. You had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn't even sink to using chemical weapons," Spicer said. After realizing his gaffe, Spicer managed to dig himself even deeper. "I think when you come to sarin gas, he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing." (As Politifact noted, Hitler absolutely gassed his own people.)

Spicer apologized to Wolf Blitzer later that day, but most pundits assumed this was the end of his career. The Anne Frank Center called for his termination, but Trump kept him around because "the guy gets great ratings." Generally, that's not a good reason to keep a press secretary on the payroll, but Trump wasn't wrong. People love watching Spicer do his thing. Whatever that might be.

And just like that, it was all over. On July 21, 2017, Spicer resigned from his position as White House press secretary. According to The New York Times, Spicer's resignation was triggered when Trump hired Wall Street financier Anthony "The Mooch" Scaramucci to be his new communications director, an appointment Spicer "vehemently disagreed with." Trump reportedly asked Spicer to stay, but Spicer declined due to "his belief that Mr. Scaramucci's hiring would add to the confusion and uncertainty already engulfing the White House."

Sarah Huckabee Sanders was subsequently hired as Spicer's replacement. Huckabee Sanders had been periodically filling in for Spencer throughout 2017, sparking speculation that his days in the White House were numbered.