Former WH Press Secretary Gives Insight Into Sean Spicer on ‘The Late Show’

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Former White House press secretary Josh Earnest stopped by The Late Show on Tuesday, and Stephen Colbert had a lot of questions for him about current press secretary Sean Spicer. The relationship between Spicer and the media has been contentious to say the least since day one, when he accused the media of lying about the size of President Trump’s inaugural crowd, even though his own statements about crowd numbers were easily refuted with visual evidence. The fact that Spicer and some media outlets are seemingly constantly at odds has gotten a lot of attention, but Earnest says that’s how it should be.

“There’s supposed to be friction and tension between the White House press corps and the White House. The day that there is not friction and tension between the White House press corps and the White House is the day that the press corps has stopped doing their job,” Earnest said.

Earnest also spoke specifically, and unfavorably, about Spicer’s first press conference.

“Spending all of the credibility that he spent on the very first day, I think was a little shortsighted,” Earnest said.

Spicer has recently come under fire for blocking certain news organizations from a press briefing, something the Obama administration was accused of doing to Fox News early on. But Earnest, who took over as press secretary in 2014, says he was nothing but fair and balanced with Fox News, which constantly butted heads with the Obama administration.

Earnest explained, “There was never a situation, Stephen, where we prevented Fox from participating in the daily White House briefing. In fact, we didn’t just let them attend the White House briefing. Every day that I was the press secretary, I called on Fox News, and I took questions from Fox News.”

Check out Stephen Colbert’s live response to Trump’s congressional address:

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