Michael Smerconish scored what he called Sean Spicer’s “exit interview” as White House press secretary, though he didn’t realize it at the time, the CNN host said Saturday.
Smerconish was in Washington on Friday to interview Arnold Schwarzenegger as well as to have an off-the-record chat with Spicer. The two met at 9 a.m., and Smerconish left 45 minutes later.
“I didn’t want to overstay my welcome — he’d told me he was meeting with the President at 10,” Smerconish said.
“By the time I’d returned to my hotel and turned on the television, word was breaking that he’d just quit as White House press secretary,” he said.
Following a rocky six months on the job, Spicer resigned after President Donald Trump named Anthony Scaramucci, a New York financier and former Trump campaign fund-raiser, as the White House communications director. At a press conference later Friday, Scaramucci announced that Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the principal deputy press secretary, would replace Spicer.
Smerconish said Spicer had given no indication he was about to resign during their chat.
“I didn’t know his departure was imminent. The timing took me by surprise — but not necessarily the outcome,” he said.
Smerconish said he didn’t want to reveal too much about their conversation, but he observed Spicer seemed to take “a strong interest in how I juggle my many platforms — radio, TV, print and public speaking.”
Smerconish said Spicer, as “the face most associated with the administration,” became a figure of mockery to many Trump critics, but he had personally always found him to be “a gentleman.”
The CNN host said farewell to Spicer as their meeting ended.
“My final comment to him on the way out referenced the next ‘eight years.’ He laughed. He had to have known,” he said.