Spicer: President Trump won’t be beholden to t
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Posted On: 12/29/2016 3:19:44 PM
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Spicer: President Trump won’t be beholden to traditional media practices
‘Business as usual is over,’ the incoming White House press secretary says.
President-elect Donald Trump owes the media a news conference, incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday morning, but beyond that, “business as usual is over.”
Spicer said Trump’s administration will not dismiss out of hand the media practices of past White Houses, but the president-elect does not feel beholden by them, either. Asked by conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt whether Trump plans to engage with media outlets "considered left of center," Spicer promised only the news conference but left open the possibility of further outreach and jabbed at one of the president-elect’s favorite targets.
“Look, I get it, we’re not going to win a battle whether The New York Times is going to ever give us a fair shake or not. But we recognize that there’s, you know, a few thousand readers or so left that still look at The New York Times, and so it’s worth, probably, talking to them,” Spicer told Hewitt, who suggested that Trump do an interview with MSNBC’s Joy-Ann Reid. “We’re going to utilize various outlets to continue the conversation. As you point out, he’s not afraid of anybody.”
Spicer has previously indicated that a practice as basic as the daily White House press briefing would be examined and possibly scrapped in favor of a new system. On Thursday, he told Hewitt that news conferences will continue, but social media engagement targeted directly at Trump’s base and the American public at large will also play a role.
“When he talks about Americans first, he means 'I don’t care what a bunch of elites tell me or people at a dinner party,'” Spicer said. “He wants to know what American workers care about, what American families care about, what’s going to help American businesses grow. And so, yes, if we have to maintain some traditions, we’ll maintain them.”
The promised news conference, which was initially scheduled to be held earlier this month but was delayed until after the new year, was planned to address conflicts of interest related to Trump’s massive business empire, from which he has thus far refused to divest himself completely. Spicer said the news conference was delayed at least in part because of the complex nature of Trump’s business entanglements and that “there’s a lot of cooks in the kitchen, if you will, because of the scope of this.”
While Trump has devoted significant time to quickly filling out his Cabinet, Spicer said he has not yet begun to interview candidates to fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
That Scalia’s successor will be chosen by a Republican president was the deciding factor for many members of the GOP hesitant to support Trump, but a handful of devout “never Trump” conservatives remain. Those Republicans, including pundits like Bill Kristol and George Will, will ultimately come around, Spicer said, once they see what Trump is able to accomplish in office.
“Well, I think the first nine hours are going to be pretty exciting,” Spicer said. “It’s going to be Day One, week one, first month, first 100 days, but he’s not going to stop.”
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