If you’ve been paying attention to the White House press briefings over the last few weeks, you may have noticed that on some days, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer holds an off-camera, audio-only briefing. On Monday, however, Spicer held both an off-camera, off-audio.
When The Atlantic’s Rosie Gray reached out to White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon about why the press briefings were being held off-camera, his blunt reply over text message simply read, “Sean got fatter.”
This infuriated former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton, who took to Twitter to defend Spicer from being fat-shamed.
The White House using fat shaming to justify increased opacity. 2017. https://t.co/pWqupoAOXu
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) June 20, 2017
Of course, this could’ve easily been a joke or diversionary tactic used by Bannon to get journalists, liberals, and #NeverTrumpers to talk about something completely different than what’s going on at the White House.
Chelsea seemed to have got the joke when one Twitter user replied simply by saying “it was a joke.”
Oh ok. So using fat shaming to avoid answering questions about increasing opacity. Got it. 2017. https://t.co/RbUSc6ipZS
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) June 20, 2017
What’s interesting about the recent activity at the White House communications office is that while briefings have been tampered down, President Trump’s tweets remain consistent. It’s almost as if he’s giving his communications team a break from having to answer to the media for every tweet he sends out.
In fact, it was reported on Monday by Politico and Bloomberg that Spicer would be leaving the podium and instead head up the communication office inside the White House.
His life might be easier, but press briefings may never be the same again without ol’ Spicey.
