The panel on Meet The Press was tasked with discussing the Sean Spicer 'press conference,' and of course, Hugh Hewitt rushed to the aid of his defenseless friend. The event doubled as a scolding of the media for harping on allegedly false numbers associated with the inauguration.
Chuck Todd looked to Hugh Hewitt to explain why Spicer came out swinging, armed with falsehoods, over easily fact-checked trivia.
CHUCK TODD: Hugh Hewitt, ...the presidency is about choices. They obviously made choice that they wanted to litigate this. Can you explain this?
HUGH HEWITT: I believe a lot of it has to do -- and I believe in grace. Zeke Miller is a friend of mine from Time Magazine, he made a mistake. Sean Spicer made a mistake on the metro numbers yesterday. I believe in grace for both of them, and that we ought to move past this. It is not good to begin your presidency at war with the media. That's how bad presidencies end.
And so I'm hoping that we don't relitigate it, the most important thing that happened over the weekend is what didn't happen. We didn't have Brussels, we didn't have Nice, we didn't have Paris or San Bernardino. General Mattis yesterday saluted the guardians and sentinels that he was welcoming. And the most important thing that I think that was said in the inaugural speech was we will eradicate radical islamic terrorism from the face of the earth. And that's been lost in all this so I say get back to the main message.
Wow! So every time there's not some awful tragedy that is allegedly spawned by "Radical Islamic Terrorism" we have to give credit and thanks to our dear leader? I guess that's the new 'normal.'
CHUCK TODD: If Sean Spicer wanted to make sure TV cameras were turned on and that all the cable networks would cover it, I think he's done a good job of that.
KRISTEN WELKER: Right. And I've been talking to former press secretaries, Republicans and Democrats who say, "When you walk out into that briefing room you have a responsibility to try to tell the truth and to answer questions." And he didn't do either.
HUGH HEWITT: All right, but people make mistakes. And I just really believe that he was given bad data on the Metro. I just really believe that some poor staffer gave him a bad piece of data on the metro--
KRISTEN WELKER: But what about the pictures?
ELIANA JOHNSON: This wasn't a mistake. This is their intentional tactic and posture towards the media.
HUGH HEWITT: I'm not defending it, It was wrong.
ELIANA JOHNSON: But they don't think of it as a mistake.
HUGH HEWITT: But let's give him a little bit of grace because it's your first day. You were telling me the story about how he didn't know how to organize the pool.
Why do we have to give Sean Spicer such sympathy? This man was Communications Director for the RNC, hardly a job that wields respect for its honesty. Do not make excuses for him. He knew what he was getting into when he accepted this position. The only question that remains: How long will he last?
