White House press secretary Sean Spicer is scheduled to give a televised press briefing after speculation that he is on the outs with President Trump.
Spicer, a devout Catholic in the Trump administration, was excluded from meeting the pope during Trump’s recent visit to the Vatican. There have been rumors that Spicer will be replaced by Sara Huckabee Sanders, who led Monday’s briefing.
Spicer’s news conferences, while perhaps not as wild as the “SNL” Spicer skits with Melissa McCarthy, tend to garner a lot of attention, whether the White House is discussing “alternative facts” or trying to pedal away from potential impeachment discussions stemming from Russia’s interference in the 2016 election between President Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The White House press secretary gives the media daily briefings that you can watch live right here. The next briefing is scheduled for today at 2 p.m.
Other scheduled events for the president, per the White House:
11 a.m. – President Trump meets with national security adviser H.R. McMaster
3 p.m. – President Trump meets with House and Senate leadership
4:30 p.m. – President Trump signs a bill
6:30 p.m. – President Trump has dinner with members of Congress
Trump has had a love-hate relationship with the press, even going so far as to ban news organizations like The New York Times and CNN from a briefing in February, which sent a “chilling” signal, experts said.
“Never before has there been a clearer need for more students to consider going into politics and political journalism,” Heath Brown, an assistant professor of public policy at John Jay College and CUNY Graduate Center, told Metro at the time. “The democracy will be sustained during this period if younger people are brought into the political process rather than turned away. More opportunities, not fewer, should be provided for access to the White House, access to the president, including opportunities for younger people to meet and engage with the president on the issues they care about.”
Trump started his presidency by arguing about the crowd size at his inauguration in January and by announcing he was skipping the White House press dinner in February, where celebrities and journalists gather to hear a humorous speech by the sitting president.
“Daily Show” correspondent Hasan Minhaj held the honor at 2017’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner and made a tremendous impression.
