A series of tweets by White House spokesman Sean Spicer on Friday commenting on strong February job creation figures may have run afoul of federal guidance barring most officials from commenting on key economic data within an hour of its release.
The rule, Statistical Policy Directive Number 3, is meant to "preserve the distinction between the policy-neutral release of data by statistical agencies and their interpretation by policy officials," the White House budget office explained when it published the most recent version in September 1985.
Jason Furman, who led President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, noted on Twitter that the rule had been in place for decades: "Everyone has followed it. Until now."
WASHINGTON – White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was in the middle of his daily press briefing Thursday when an aide handed him a note that said, “You just committed a felony,” according to a senior White House official with knowledge of the note’s contents.
Spicer paused briefly after reading the note, then cleared his throat and continued with the briefing, taking a question from Jonathan Karl of ABC News.
The alleged felony the note referred to apparently centers around Spicer’s remarks during the briefing about an alleged Justice Department investigation into ties between President Trump, his campaign team and officials representing the Russian government. Spicer said the investigators have “no evidence, zero.”
“I’m telling you they have nothing,” Spicer said in response to a question from Halli Jackson of NBC News. The briefing was recorded and broadcast on several different networks and news sites. “I’ve seen what they have, I got hold of it, and they have nothing. They should quit while they’re ahead.”
Crazy is the new normal. It bugs me that the press laughs at that kind of crap, like they're all at a party just hangin' out and having a good time with their hilarious buddy Spicy. Meanwhile the Trump administration continues to send their country spiraling down the toilet. The press is being way too soft on these clowns.
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Wait... how many levels of satire did I just read?
1: article about Sean Spicer getting the felony note.
2: peter12's response, definitely also satire.
3: Drak's response to peter12's response? ... pretty sure that's ALSO satire but not 100% sure... anyone want to help me out on this?
To get back to Trump, it's pretty impressive the economy added sixty million jobs since he was elected. That's gotta be a good sign, right? Oh ... oh it didn't add that many jobs? So Trump was just saying random numbers when he said the unemployment rate was as high as 42%? He's a feckless liar, you say? Oh ... well, that's not so good then.
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I do feel shame.
