White House press secretary Sean Spicer repeatedly refused to say Monday whether President Donald Trump is secretly recording his conversations.
Since Friday, the White House has refused to clarify Trump’s morning tweet: “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press.”
Trump told Fox News on Friday that he “won’t talk about that.”
Spicer said four times on Friday that Trump had “nothing further to add on that.”
The White House spokesman again avoided reporters’ questions Monday — claiming seven more times that Trump, and therefore the White House, had nothing more to say.
Here are the seven times Spicer dodged reporters’ questions Monday about whether the President of the United States is secretly recording private conversations he has with US officials and others:
1) “I think I made it clear last week that the President has nothing further on that.”
2) “I was very clear that the President would have nothing further on that last week.”
3) “I made it clear what the President’s position is on that issue.”
4) “The President has made it clear what his position is.”
5) “I’ve answered the question over and over again the same way.”
6) “That’s his position. He said that he has nothing further to add”
7) “There’s nothing further to add.”
Spicer’s refusal to answer questions of whether Trump is privately recording conversations and whether he will comply with congressional requests to provide those recordings if they exist come on the heels of a strenuous week for the White House communications department.
White House spokespeople last week provided accounts of James Comey’s firing as FBI director that contradicted Trump’s own account of the decision. Criticism of the press office’s handling of Comey’s firing has been widespread in Washington, including inside the White House.
Trump has repeatedly put his press operation in the difficult position of defending or beating back questions about controversial actions he has taken or statements he has made without offering any evidence.
For example, Spicer’s very first briefing room appearance concluded with him not taking any questions from the gathered press, after attempting to chastise coverage of Trump’s inaugural crowd size.
