Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer gave a rave review to current Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, calling his Monday performance “excellent,” despite a rocky start on Saturday.
“He did excellent today,” said Fleischer, speaking with CNN’s Brooke Baldwin. “Look. Today, happy days are here again in terms of the relationship between the press secretary and the press corps.”
But Fleischer, who served as George W. Bush’s first press secretary, acknowledged that Spicer had had a rough start on Saturday. That’s when he presided over a much-criticized news conference in which he claimed, against the evidence, that more people had attended Trump’s inauguration than President Obama’s in 2008.
“Saturday made me uncomfortable,” said Fleischer. “I don’t think it was helpful to anybody. Today was the way it should be. There were tense moments in there. They were handled well by both sides and it [was] a normal briefing. That’s the way it should be.”
“It was a fine briefing,” he added. “Sean did an excellent job. He also displayed substantial knowledge of policy, which I think is going to help him immeasurably. “
