Sean Spicer won’t deny that Trump is secretly recording White House conversations
WASHINGTON – Press Secretary Sean Spicer was given several opportunities Friday to deny that President Trump is secretly recording conversations that occur in the White House. He never did.
Trump has complained bitterly about his belief that the Obama administration had secretly tapped his phones. The possibility that he might be surveilling his own White House was raised by a tweet he sent Friday morning.
“James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” he wrote, referring to discussions he had with FBI Director James B. Comey, who Trump fired this week in a move that set off a political firestorm.
When asked if that meant that Trump was recording conversations, Spicer said he had asked the president about the issue.
Based on that conversation, he offered this response: “The president has nothing further to add on that.”
He stuck to that response several times as reporters circled back to the question of whether Trump is using recording devices in the White House.
Spicer had been absent from the press briefing room for two days while serving Navy Reserve duty at the Pentagon. It was his deputy, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who had to step in to brief the media under circumstances that would challenge even the most veteran administration spokesman.
In separate tweets Friday morning Trump seemed to hint at dissatisfaction with how his communications team has weathered the firestorm he created with the abrupt decision to fire Comey on Tuesday.
Spicer defended the hard work of his team, talking about the long hours they put in, before seeming to echo the president in explaining why it was not always possible to present a clear and accurate message to reporters, and, through them, to the public.
The president, Spicer said, is incredibly active and maintains a “robust schedule.”
“Sometimes we don’t have an opportunity to get in to see him and get his whole thinking,” he said.