Mar 30, 2017 - Politics & Policy
The takeaways from Spicer's Thursday press briefing
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Evan Vucci / AP
The briefing was dominated by the NY Times bombshell that the sources behind Devin Nunes' claims that Trump may have been monitored by the Obama administration were reportedly White House officials. Spicer said he wouldn't comment because he didn't want to "condone" or "validate" the reporting, but he didn't dispute it either.
- On who let Nunes onto White House grounds: Spicer said he didn't know, and that it was a double standard for the press to expect him to name names because, "you don't ever tell me who your sources are."
- Trump's tweet attacking Freedom Caucus: "I'm going to let the tweet speak for itself." When asked later if the tweet was part of a "divide and conquer strategy," Spicer replied, "No, It's a math strategy. To get to 216."
- Uh oh on tax reform: Spicer said they're "just at the beginning" of the process. In early Feb. Trump said they were near the end.
- Legislative traffic jam: Spicer said health care, tax reform and infrastructure could all move ahead at the same time because there's "lots of tracks."
- On Trump's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping: "We have big problems. Everything from the South China Sea, to trade, to North Korea."
- Internet privacy rules: Trump supports Congressional rolling back Obama-era Internet privacy protections.
- Paris agreement: The White House will decide whether to pull out of the Paris climate accord by the G7 summit in late May, if not earlier.
- On whether Trump discusses the Trump Organization with his sons, as Eric Trump revealed last week: "That's a question for the Trump Organization... everything he's done has been in accordance with his ethics counsel."
