Sean Spicer is in our homes and on our phones every day as he updates the world on the goings-on in the Trump administration. But what do we know about the man behind the podium?
Spicer was the White House Easter bunny.
While working in the U.S. Trade Representative’s office under President George W. Bush, Spicer spiced up the annual Easter Egg Roll as the cuddly Easter bunny. The Easter bunny might like candy, but Spicer is all about cinnamon Orbit.
If you watched the “SNL” skits where Melissa McCarthy, as Spicer, shoves wads of gum into her mouth before sticking it to the podium for later, you might be wondering: Does Spicer really chew that much gum? That answer is yes. He chews and swallows “two and a half packsby noon,” he admitted in an August 2016 profile in The Washington Post. “I talked to my doctor about it, he said it’s no problem.”
Suzy Strutner, a lifestyle editor at Huffington Post, played mad scientist and experimented to see if she could keep up with Spicer’s mastication habit. Only three-quarters through one pack of strawberry Orbit, Strutner was feeling the effects.
“My jaw hurts,” she wrote. “My tongue is raw with sticky-sweet abrasions. I can only imagine how much worse that would feel if this was cinnamon flavor.”
Spicer likes it spicy.
Spicer’s wife used to have a job in the White House.
Spicer is married toRebecca Miller Spicer, who — in addition to being his handler while he was masquerading as a snuggly candy-sharing bunny — was the associate director of communications in the G.W. Bush administration. The two married in 2004 when she was producing the evening broadcast for theABC affiliate in Washington, WJLA.
Miller Spicer is currently the senior vice president of communications and public affairs for the National Beer Wholesalers Association, “a trade association that represents the interests of the 3,300 licensed, independent beer distributors — with operations located in every state and congressional district across the United States — before government and the public,” according to LinkedIn. Spicer broke up a “nerdy fight” between two reporters.
Whilecommunications director forthe Republican National Committee, Spicerintervened when reporters from The Washington Post and Huffington Post resorted to fisticuffs at a 2016 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner afterparty. ‘Cause there ain’t no party like the afterparty.
Brawl between @ryangrim and @jessebwatters at MSNBC party. pic.twitter.com/Fy7VKFBdmh
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) May 1, 2016
As guests grooved to DJ Biz Markie, Fox News correspondent Jesse Watters and Huffington Post’s Washington bureau chiefRyan Grim decided to reignite a squabble they had on the “O’Reilly Factor.” The beef dates back to a 2009 incident in which Watters, whom The Post calls an “ambush journalist,” allegedly stalked and harassed one of Grim’s coworkers, Amanda Terkel, for acritical post she wrote about O’Reilly. [Video contains language NSFW.]
As the two men “flailed around a bit,” as The Post put it, Spicer and other bystanders broke up the fight.
Spicer said he didn’t see how the fight began, but he was “just trying to keep the peace.”
The man who speaks for President Trump used to be critical of him.
When Donald Trump called undocumented immigrants rapists and murderers, Spicer — while not calling Trump out directly —tried to reduce the blow to the GOP brand.
“I mean, as far as painting Mexican Americans with that kind of a brush, I think that’s probably something that is not helpful to the cause,” he told CNN at the time.
Spicer directly criticized Trump when the then-candidate denigrated Sen. John McCain saying he isn’t a war hero because he was captured.
Spicer issued a statement: “Senator McCain is an American hero because he served his country and sacrificed more than most can imagine. Period. There is no place in our party or our country for comments that disparage those who have served honorably.”
