It goes without saying that the Trump surrogates set to spinning in the wake of any ripple appearing in the Trump pond, let alone the tsunami of the last news cycle. If anybody has spent the past 36 hours or so vacationing in a pleasant cave and is just now tuning in the latest news, please know that Russian spies allegedly collected compromising information on Donald Trump and a number of news outlets, CNN among them, found the information credible enough to publish it. This in turn led to Trump disparaging CNN's reporting as "fake news," and melting down into his own usual twitter tempest. Sean Spicer, Trump's knight errant and incoming White House Press Secretary immediately sallied forth to Trump's defense to right these egregious wrongs:
"I think Mr. Acosta owes the president-elect and frankly the entire press corps an apology for his childish and inappropriate behavior," Spicer told Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight." Spicer also said Acosta was, "rude, inappropriate and disrespectful," during Trump's Wednesday press conference.
After the press conference, Spicer said he approached Acosta and "I informed him that I thought that no one should be treated that ... disrespectfully, and that if he did it again in the future, I would have him removed."
"No one needs to be treated with that level of disrespect and rudeness," Spicer later added.
The former Republican National Committee spokesman added that the contentious nature of Wednesday’s presser could be a preview of future briefings under a Trump administration.
“If you want to have a conversation and engage in a polite and respectful manner with the president-elect, he’s gonna treat you in kind,” Spicer said. “But if you come in hot and want to be disrespectful and rude, as Jim Acosta was today, he’s not gonna sit back and take it. This is a man who fights and wins.”
This is a man who tweets and topples over, but whatever. I learned long ago that the apparitions that appear on my screen must be broadcasts from an alternate universe because I don't see and hear the same stories that the pundits at Fox News perceive on whatever communication devices it is that they use. Here, I didn't see Jim Acosta "coming in hot." I saw a clearly angry Donald Trump pointing a finger at him and glaring and snapping his jaws. Watch the tape again with the sound off, the resemblance between Trump and a dog with distemper is sobering to say the least.
Be that as it may, Sean Spicer is a Press Secretary to watch. Just a few days ago Spicer was quoted on Crooks & Liars as saying that in the future, Trump might only give press conferences to "conservative media." One may infer that Trump and Spicer will decide who the hand-picked few that are deserving of an audience with the president might be. And then of course there was George Stephanopoulos' interview earlier this month where Spicer whined about how people were mocking the president-elect rather than supporting him. If that pathetic display, and the commentary on Tucker Carlson's show Wednesday evening is any indication of the shape of things to come, we can expect press coverage of the Trump administration to illustrate the old carny barkers' pitch, "Gather ‘round boys and girls, children of all ages! Right here in the White House big top! You ain't seen nothin' yet!" Donald Trump is in the White House and the circus is in town.