After accosting him at an Apple store and publishing the video on Twitter, progressive activist Shree Chauhan leveled a serious accusation of racism against White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Sunday.
Identified as @shreec on Twitter, she shoved her camera in Spicer’s face while he shopped at a Washington, D.C., Apple store, peppering him with bizarre and ill-conceived questions ranging from, “How does it feel to work for a fascist?” to “Have you helped with the Russia stuff?” to “How do you feel about destroying our country, Sean?” For his part, Spicer remained calm throughout the incident. Given Chauhan’s obnoxious behavior, she’s fortunate Spicer maintained his cool and responded only with a smile and a few polite quips.
After posting the video on Twitter, Chauhan expounded upon the encounter in a post for Medium wherein she accused Spicer of directing a racist threat at her during the exchange. The video appears to depict Spicer saying, “Such a great country that allows you to be here” after Chauhan asked, “What can you tell me about Russia?”
Now, however, Chauhan is claiming those words were a racist threat.
In her Medium post reflecting on Spicer’s quote, she wrote, “That is racism and it is an implied threat. Think about the sheer audacity of Mr. Spicer to say that to my face with a smile, knowing that he that he is being recorded on video and the position of power he holds in our government.”
She continued, “I am still stunned by the boldness of having my citizenship threatened on camera.”
Her fellow progressives followed Chauhan’s lead and accused Spicer of making that comment simply because her skin is brown.
Without reading Spicer’s thoughts, it is impossible to know his exact motivation, but the more obvious interpretation is that he was saying “Such a great country that allows you to be here in public questioning your federal officials on camera.” In other words, Spicer was saying the country is great because Chauhan has the opportunity to express her opinion about him in public.
When confronted with that possibility by the Daily Mail, Chauhan replied, “‘Don’t tell me what he probably meant because he also works for this administration that has done all of these things.”
She also argued, “He could’ve said, ‘Such a great country that allows dissent… There’s a lot of ways that could’ve been said.”
Chauhan continued, “To have someone who speaks for the president of the United States tell me to my face that I shouldn’t be here and I was born here – that is a real thing.”
Except it’s not a real thing at all because Spicer didn’t say “you shouldn’t be here.”
In her Daily Mail interview, Chauhan declared, “‘I’m a daughter of immigrants. My parents came to this country because they believed in what America is all about.”
It sounds like she agrees that America is a great country precisely because is “allows” her to be here, just as Spicer said. As someone who is also “allowed” to be in America, as all Americans are, by virtue of my citizenship, I agree too! Even if you accept the unlikely interpretation of Spicer’s comments as “such a great country that allows you to live in America,” in voicing her opposition to that statement, Chauhan completely agreed with it.
The accusation that Spicer leveled any sort of racist “threat” is entirely predicated on the assumptions that (1) by “here” Spicer meant America (2) that he only made that comment because of her race and (3) he meant it as a threat implying he would ask the administration to revoke her citizenship. Taking all three as fact is reckless and irresponsible, but the last assumption, one that Chauhan has completely run with, is especially baseless.
While it’s impossible to disprove each assumption without access to Spicer’s brain, the evidence to support Chauhan’s interpretation is flimsy at best. If she really believes the Trump administration is racist, her time would be better spent focusing on those policies rather than a vague comment Spicer made at an Apple store.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
