It appears ex-White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer really lost his mind this week when he treated a legendary Washington reporter like a criminal for sending him a basic request for comment on a story.
Even with a lot of staffers in President Trump‘s White House lawyering up, Spicer’s bizarre email came as a shock for people who have known and worked with him for a few decades.
Axios‘ Mike Allen — an establishment all his own in Washington — thankfully reported on Spicer’s email. Spicer’s response hilariously treated Allen like he had done something that could possibly bring about legal action. The story blew up, culminating with Politico Jack Shafer‘s dinner time piece on Spicer destroying his own rep and ultimately MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour With Brian Williams.” The story had already been covered all day long.
Perhaps the funniest part of Shafer’s piece came in the lines just after it. Below his story, he wrote, “If you send unsolicited emails to Shafer.Politico@gmail.com I’ll report you, too!”
By Friday morning, Allen had an update: Spicer apologized.
In “Bonus Life Lessons,” Allen writes that Spicer “apologized (by text) for losing his cool when I invited his comment for a story about him, and I accepted.”
He added in a quote from Andy Rooney: “A reminder for all of us of one of the great old-timey quotes: ‘Keep your words sweet, in case you have to eat them.'”
And we can all collective take a deep breath.
The Mirror understand’s only too well Allen’s angst upon receiving such an email. I, too, received a threatening response when I recently sent basic requests for comment. I was treated, absurdly, like I had harassed a few people when that obviously was not the case. About a week before Rosh Hashanah, I was compared to a man who helped organized The Holocaust.
It’s enough to make you ask a simple journalistic question: What the hell?
Does @seanspicer think it’s illegal for a reporter to ask a question? This is how he responded to an email inquiry from @mikeallen pic.twitter.com/nN9i18X298
— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) September 21, 2017
WATCH OUR IN MEMORIAM FOR SEAN SPICER’S CAREER AS WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: