‘If He’s Not Joking, of Course’
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was grilled by several reporters Monday afternoon after public outrage over his and President Trump’s remarks about Friday’s unemployment numbers. During the presidential race Trump repeatedly denounced Dept. of Labor reports as fake, false, or phony, and even claimed that he had “heard” unemployment was as high as 42 percent. Unemployment, to be factual, is now at 4.7 percent.
Spicer Friday told reporters President Trump “told me to quote him very clearly: ‘They may have been phony in the past, but it’s very real now.'”
On Monday, after Spicer announced that President Trump does not believe President Obama tapped his phones personally, he added that he used “wiretapping” to include a wide variety of surveillance methods, and extended Trump’s claim to include the “Obama administration,” all of which are an attempt to give Trump a greater opportunity to wiggle out of these lies:
It is vital journalists and the American people not let Trump slide on these allegations, or tweak them so they become true.Â
Reporters Monday demanded to know exactly when they can trust the president’s words, and when they should not.Â
Spicer falsely told NBC News’ Peter Alexander that many outlets reported what the president said before the election. That’s false. No credible news agency reported that President Barack Obama had Donald Trump’s wires tapped in Trump Tower. None.
Spicer also wrongly claimed the Congressional Budget Office’s numbers were wildly inaccurate when projecting the impact of ObamaCare. Asm ThinkProgress’ Ian Millhiser notes, the Supreme Court made the Medicare expansion optional, years after the CBO scored the Affordable Care Act:
Here’s Spicer getting asked again, by NBC’s Hallie Jackson, when reporters and Americans can trust what Trump says:
And on if the CBO numbers on TrumpCare should be trusted, after Trump and Republicans trashed them before they even came out – which they still have not:
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