Sean Spicer holds first press briefing in weeks, invents “Majinsky Act” during bizarre meltdown
For reasons known only to Donald Trump or whoever is running the White House at this point, Press Secretary Sean Spicer was sent to the podium today to hold his first press briefing since late June, back when we were all told he would no longer even hold that title. But, in a sequel that no one was asking to be made, Sean Spicer II came to life today, and let’s just say it wasn’t pretty.
As has become custom no matter who’s doing the press briefings these days, reporters were not allowed to capture video of Sean Spicer answering questions. And that may be for the best. Apparently someone forgot to brief Spicer on everything that’s happened in the past five days, because he was still using Donald Trump Jr.’s original excuse that his meeting with Russia was about adoption. But instead of blaming the Magnitsky Act, Spicer tried blaming something called the “Majinsky Act.” There is no Majinsky Act.
That led a number of reporters in the briefing to tweet out Spicer’s mistake (link), which of course led to endless punchlines and humiliation across social media. Donald Trump’s own attorney Jay Sekulow has also been caught referring to the “Majinsky Act” instead of the Magnitsky Act, which suggests to us that Sekulow is the one who briefed Spicer for this press conference. That would mean Trump’s personal lawyer is now dictating what the White House says to the media.
In any case, by all reports, this was yet another bizarre Sean Spicer meltdown in front of the cameras, except there were no cameras. It’s also worth pointing out that the White House hasn’t allowed any of its press briefings to be videotaped since Donald Trump hired his son an attorney in late June. It raises the question of whether the two are related, and how.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report