Hearing Sean Spicer talk has always made me cringe. For someone who is the press secretary and director of communications for the White House, the man has a tough time actually trying to speak. He started his career as press secretary just about as poorly as one could imagine, lying about the size of the crowds at the inauguration in January. This spurred the famous “alternative facts” line to first be said by Kellyanne Conway in defense of Spicer.
Most of what he has said so far is to be expected from somebody that wants to do their job and keep the president happy at the same time. I don’t mind that at all. There are going to be people that are appointed when a new president takes office that you don’t necessarily agree with, but you deal with. Up until the beginning of this week, I did not have a huge problem with Sean Spicer.
I actually would go so far to say that he was quite funny when he took the podium. He would fumble his words around and seemed as prepared to talk to the press as you or I would be. It was comical how bad he was at his job. Plus, seeing Melissa McCarthy impersonate him on “Saturday Night Live” was about as good as it gets.
However, his recent comments comparing what Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad did to his people to what Adolf Hitler did to the people of Europe was ridiculous. Spicer said that Hitler never went as far as using chemical weapons on his own people. When I saw the headlines, I was in disbelief.
It is absolutely absurd, I know. One of the main ways that Jewish people were killed in concentration camps were the gas chambers. These gas chambers had chemical gas killing people. I don’t mean to downplay what Assad has done to his people because it is a terrible, ongoing crisis that needs to be stopped right now. Be that as it may, comparing what he has done to what Hitler did, on the week of Passover, may be the final straw for Spicer.
The only way that Sean Spicer stays as press secretary is if our president is too afraid to admit that he was wrong. President Donald Trump has made some questionable appointments, but has ultimately fired those who brought more baggage than originally expected, which is commendable. I hope that this is going to be one of those scenarios. What Spicer said is flat out ridiculous and virtually impossible to come back from. I feel that his credibility has dwindled since the day he took this new job. His credibility may be at an all-time low.
I am not saying in any way that I think Spicer is a bad person, because he probably isn’t. He currently still holds the rank of commander in the U.S. Navy, which shows that he cares about the country and wants us to succeed in whatever we do. He has worked in Washington, D.C. for a number of years and should know what it takes to be successful.
When I take a step back and try to look at the situation objectively, however, I don’t see many redeeming qualities in Spicer. He doesn’t communicate clearly, is often wrong when he does get his point across and has now said that the most nefarious world leader of all time didn’t use chemical weapons. I think it is time for Trump to admit that whatever faith he had left in Spicer is now gone. The president needs to start looking for a new press secretary to save himself from being embarrassed any further.
