Spicey Out 

By Ellie Shechet  |  July 21, 2017 | 5:25pm
Politics

Following what appears to have been the worst (and tannest) six months of his grim little life, the New York Times reports that Sean Spicer has resigned from his position as White House press secretary. I would say we’ll miss seeing him regularly dissolve into an incoherent puddle in the briefing room, but those aren’t public anymore.

Spicer reportedly resigned over the appointment of Anthony “the mooch” Scaramucci as Communications Director, an appointment that Spicer ally and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus was apparently unaware of. Spicer reportedly told Trump that the appointment was a “major mistake,” and resigned despite being asked to stay on. The communications director position has been open since Mike Dubke resigned in May. (It’s so weird that people keep resigning, why is that?)

Although Scaramucci is a stunning blowhard with whom Spicer and Priebus reportedly had a “tense” relationship, it’s hard to see why this specific appointment was the final straw for Spicey. Here, for example, is a quick list of times Sean Spicer did not resign:

When he learned that he would be expected, again and again, to spout flagrant lies on his boss’s behalf.

When his boss fired the director of the FBI to get out of being investigated.

When he accidentally praised Hitler in his official capacity as White House press secretary.

When, at the same press briefing, he referred to concentration camps as “Holocaust centers.”

When a guy with deep ties to a Nazi-linked Hungarian nationalist group was given a job in the White House.

When the president’s son openly admitted to a probably-illegal meeting with a Russian government-linked lawyer seeking opposition research on Hillary Clinton.

When he got in trouble for being parodied by a woman on SNL.

When they started making him wear bronzer.

And yet, according to the Times, the appointment of Scaramucci, a financier and Fox News contributor, appears to have had a major impact on the White House’s already roiling internal dynamics. His “overseas investments,” in particular, reportedly caused concern early on:

During the transition, Mr. Trump had planned to appoint Mr. Scaramucci, a 52-year-old Harvard Law graduate from Long Island, as director of his office of public liaison, but the offer was pulled at the request of Mr. Priebus over concerns about Mr. Scaramucci’s overseas investments.
[…]
Mr. Trump made the appointment over the objection of Mr. Priebus, who thought Mr. Scaramucci lacked the requisite organizational or political experience. But the president believed Mr. Scaramucci, a ferocious defender of Mr. Trump’s on cable television, was best equipped to play the same role in-house, and he offered him a role with far-reaching powers independent of Mr. Priebus’s.

Interesting!

Anyway, a jolly farewell to Sean Spicer, who can console himself with the knowledge that he will never be forgotten, a timeless example of the endless humiliation and moral degradation the president requires of anyone stupid enough to work for him.

UPDATE: Spicer will be staying on through August, although the last shreds of his dignity appear to have already left.

UPDATE, PART 2: Congratulations to America, Sarah Huckabee Sanders is your new press secretary.

 
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