January 23, 2017

Liveblogging Sean Spicer’s First Press Briefing

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Sean Spicer is holding his first press conference today. The first three questions go to the New York Post, the Christian Broadcasting Network, and Fox News. They all ask softball questions.

How about those reports that US planes are attacking ISIS in collaboration with the Russians? Spicer refuses to deny it even though the Pentagon has already called the claim “rubbish.”

Finally someone asks about Spicer’s debacle on Saturday. It turns out that Spicer is upset about anyone questioning his integrity and claims that everything he said on Saturday was based on the best information at the time. Furthermore, he stands by his statement that Trump’s inauguration was the most watched of all time. Sure, Reagan had 41 million viewers, but Reagan didn’t have YouTube.1 Once you add in that, plus Facebook and smartphones and all that stuff, then Trump kicked Reagan’s ass, amirite?

Then Spicer refuses to say what the unemployment rate is. There’s a lot of different statistics out there, and anyway, Trump prefers to think of people, not faceless statistics. That’s just the kind of guy he is.

What is Trump going to do about climate change? “He’s going to meet with his team.”

What are Trump’s first three legislative priorities? Immigration, tax reform, regulatory reform. And that’s not just the wall, either. We need a complete immigration overhaul.

Trump has no immediate plans to revoke DACA, the “mini-DREAM” act signed by President Obama. I wonder what the immigration hawks think of this?

What kind of relationship does Trump plan with China? “He understands what a big market that is.” Okey doke.

Spicer is now denying that the cheers during Trump’s CIA speech were mostly coming from folks that he brought along. “Just listen to the cheers. It was more than a few people.”

I guess this could last forever, and I’m getting hungry. My professionalism has a limit, and it’s now been reached. Spicer is droning on about the perfidy of the press and how Trump always outperforms people’s expectations. Then we hear yet again about his outrage over the incorrect reporting regarding the MLK bust in the Oval Office. Spicer now claiming that Trump is treated way worse that any other president in history. Blah blah blah. That’s it for me.

1This is pretty much a direct quote: “Reagan didn’t have YouTube.”

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“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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