Donald Trump will not continue his campaign practice of banning individual news outlets once he’s in the White House, Republican National Committee’s communications director Sean Spicer said at a bar-in-the-back event in Washington.
“There’s a big difference between a campaign where it is a private venue using private funds and a government entity,” Sean Spicer said Friday evening at the soiree hosted by Politico Playbook. “We have a respect for the press when it comes to the government. That is something that you can’t ban an entity from.”
“That’s what makes a democracy a democracy, versus a dictatorship,” Spicer said.
NBC News
He did not mention whether, as president, Trump planned to continue his tradition of pointing to reporters covering his speeches, to call them “scum,” and “slime,” etc. Too bad because, if he does, it would likely make for, say, the most watched State of the Union Address in history.
Spicer blasted Politico for its “tweet first/fix later” approach to journalism. You won’t be the first if you suggest that’s a pretty apt description of Trump’s morning social-media routine.
In fairness to Spicer, he’d made that remark after being asked to talk about the “elephant in the room” by the Politico hosts. Their media outlet was among those banned at some point in the campaign by Trump.
The race to post headlines and provocative remarks is not good journalism, Spicer complained, saying Politico’s coverage of Trump’s campaign has at times been “tweet happy, it is click bait in many cases, and it’s devoid of facts.” But he also complained about other media outlets.
Spicer declined to confirm speculation he’s now top on the list of candidates to serve as the incoming POTUS’s press secretary, insisting Trump has not yet made up his mind.