Can Sean Spicer get his dance card back?
The lineup for the 28th season of Dancing with the Stars includes some celeb favorites, from Karamo Brown of “Queer Eye” to former NFL player Ray Lewis and Kate Flannery (Meredith from “The Office”). But there’s one contestant few fans would have expected: former White House press secretary Sean Spicer.
According to TMZ, the ex-politico turned down a spot on the show two years ago because of an “overwhelming number of commitments.” A source confirmed to an outlet what everyone already assumed: “He’s not a good dancer.”
Now, perhaps feeling the slow pull of obscurity, Spicer has changed his mind. He wasn’t exactly the most popular person during his 7-month stint at the White House, but he seems ready to burnish his reputation with a claim to stardom.
During his first press statement in 2017, Spicer made perhaps his most well-known gaffe, which doomed him as a factually flexible mouthpiece for the administration. Defending the crowd size at President Trump’s inauguration, he said, “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration — period — both in person and around the globe.”
Photographs of the event showed otherwise. He later clarified that he meant to include online viewers in his numbers, though how he counted them up is unclear. Kellyanne Conway, in an attempt to defend his comment, infamously coined the morally fluid term “alternative facts.”
Since then, Spicer has tried to play it cool. He kept his comments about Melissa McCarthy’s SNL impression of him comparatively muted (saying she “could dial back”), and he even lampooned himself at the 2017 Emmys.
“This will be the largest audience to witness an Emmys, period,” he said. “Both in person and around the world.”
He’s not such a bad guy, he’d like you to know.
Plenty of Dancing with the Stars fans are furious about his upcoming appearance, but he’s not the first Republican politician to appear on the show. Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry joined Dancing with the Stars, to the tune of “God Blessed Texas,” in 2016. For those who wonder, he couldn’t dance either.
Former Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay competed in 2009, and as an honorable mention, let us not forget when Tucker Carlson competed in 2006. The show looks for Democratic contestants, too: Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama were asked to join, according to Us Weekly, but they turned down their offers.
Dancing with the Stars host Tom Bergeron, who released a statement lamenting this season’s participation in our “exhausting political climate,” made a quip about Spicer that may be worn out by time he leaves the show: He will be in charge of “assessing audience size.” Womp womp.
Bergeron may be right that audiences don’t want more politics when they turn on the TV. Dancing with the Stars fans just want to watch celebrities and professional dancers take the stage in alternating cringe-worthy and remarkable performances.
Another issue with the presence of “celebrities” such as Spicer is this: Since when do politicians qualify as stars? It says something about our society when we elevate politicos to the same status as entertainers.
Or maybe it’s the other way around — looking at you, President Trump.
