Press Briefings to Have Much Less Sean Spicer This Week

Sarah Huckabee Sanders is filling in
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted May 10, 2017 3:34 PM CDT
Press Briefings to Have Much Less Sean Spicer This Week
Deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, May 10, 2017.   (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Something was missing from Sean Spicer's regular press briefing Wednesday: the White House press secretary himself. CNN reports Spicer is at the Pentagon this week fulfilling his US Navy Reserve duty by serving on the media staff of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Filling in for him this week is his deputy press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The daughter of Mike Huckabee presided over her first press conference while filling in for Spicer last Friday, according to the Hill. President Trump is said to have been pleased with how it went.

Sanders didn't have an easy time of it Wednesday, dealing with the fallout from the firing of James Comey in just her second-ever press conference. Mediaite reports she told reporters Trump had been losing faith in Comey since the election and had been considering firing him for a while. She says Trump's shift from supporting Comey to firing him came because Trump is now president and not a candidate. She also accused Comey of committing "atrocities" in his handling of the Clinton email situation. So how'd her performance go over? Maggie Haberman of the New York Times tweets Sanders "obfuscates same as Spicer" but "without making [it] deeply personal, petty, condescending." (More Sarah Huckabee Sanders stories.)

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