Sean Spicer channels Melissa McCarthy during a White House press conference
Press Secretary Sean Spicer made a joke during the daily White House press conference on Friday, and, to be fair, it was actually pretty funny.
In the first weeks of President Donald J. Trump's presidency, it became pretty clear that Spicer had a short temper when answering questions he didn't like or understand from the press. Being the press secretary and all, it was a bit problematic.
His performance was so ridiculous that he even got a jab from Saturday Night Live, where Melissa McCarthy played a very angry, gum-chewing Spicer. At one point in the bit, McCarthy charges a reporter with the podium.
During the daily White House press briefing on Friday, Spicer referenced McCarthy's portrayal when he answered a question he didn't like.
"Don't make me make the podium move," Spicer told the room filled with reporters.
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'Don't make me make the podium move.'
Sean Spicer makes a Melissa McCarthy joke during the White House press conference. pic.twitter.com/DKAgUgVJiL— Mashable News (@MashableNews) March 10, 2017
It's not too surprising that Spicer would get peeved with the question, because it directly involved how he may have messed up.
The jobs report for February, the first full month of the Trump administration, was released on Friday. It reported that 235,000 jobs were added during that time. Naturally, The White House was pretty pumped and wanted to claim that its first few weeks in office were a major success. Spicer tweeted about the Bureau of Labor Statistics report 22 minutes after it was released, breaking a federal rule in the process.
Great news for American workers: economy added 235,000 new jobs, unemployment rate drops to 4.7% in first report for @POTUS Trump
— Sean Spicer (@PressSec) March 10, 2017
According to the LA Times, Spicer broke the Office of Management and Budget's Statistical Policy Directive No. 3, adopted in 1985 with his tweet. Executive branch officials are supposed to wait at least one hour after the official release time before commenting. Spicer only lasted 22 minutes.
"Except for members of the staff of the agency issuing the principal economic indicator who have been designated by the agency head to provide technical explanations of the data, employees of the Executive Branch shall not comment publicly on the data until at least one hour after the official release time," the rule states.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics website, the rule was created to preserve the neutrality and objectivity of the statistics.
So maybe Spicer's joke was just a little bit of nervous comedy.
Spicer did apologize, and tried to diffuse by saying the info was already out there, and that he wasn't giving analysis.
"I get it," Spicer said during the press conference. "It's not about commenting, it's one thing to give analysis, literally tweeting out great news. I think yes, we're excited when the president and the rest of the team saw the news this morning as reported on every television station, Twitter, the internet and every major news site in the country and around the world we're excited to see so many Americans back to work, so I apologize for being so excited to see so many Americans back to work."
