‘House of Cards’ Gets Mileage Out of Sean Spicer’s Flag Pin Gaffe

CBS News White House correspondent Steven Portnoy talked with WTOP on Friday, shortly after his interview with White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer for the CBS News Weekend Roundup.

“The unemployment rate is probably 20 percent, but I will tell you, you have some great economists that will tell you it’s at 30, 32”, he said in September 2015.

Spicer denied that the Central Intelligence Agency was working to identify those people and remove them from office.

His podium comment was in reference to a recent sketch Melissa McCarthy did on “Saturday Night Live”.

Given the frequency with which candidate Trump had questioned the integrity of government economic data (calling them “phony numbers” and “one of the biggest hoaxes in American politics”), the question went, was President Trump confident that today’s report was accurate? When asked about the Wikileaks matter by a reporter, he smiled and did not respond.

“…whether it’s the event that happened in Kansas City, other events, the attacks on Jewish community centres that continue to plague us – I guess we saw another report this morning, some unfortunate activity”.

Press Secretary Sean Spicer spoke with an upside-down flag pin at Friday’s press briefing.

“Honest to God”, Spicer continued, “every reporter here reported that out”.

But those commentaries seem to have broken a federal rule that prohibits executive branch employees from publicly commenting on principal economic indicators within one hour of release.

Spicer may have been joking, as he delivered the line with a wry smile and chuckled after he finished.

Pennsylvania Representative Mike Kelly, a Republican, said former President Obama was only staying in Washington, D.C. and not because his daughter was finishing school.

At a press conference on Friday, Spicer said that he understood the rule, but said that he didn’t think there was a problem because the news was already out there.

As he began to recap Trump’s first 50 days in office, social media users joked about what the wardrobe malfunction could mean.