White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters Friday President Donald Trump is "a little dismayed" with press briefings that have often turned combative between administration spokespeople and members of the press, the Washington Examiner reported.
Spicer defended the White House press corps, maintaining the speed of events taking place often don't get immediately transmitted, and that they do their best to follow up with correct information. He had returned to the briefings Friday after being away this week at the Pentagon to fulfill obligations with the U.S. Navy Reserve duty.
On Thursday, Trump in an interview contradicted comments made by deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders about when he decided to remove James Comey as FBI director.
"I think he's a little dismayed," Spicer said. "We don't always have the opportunity to go in to see the president, and I think in those cases we do a pretty good job of following up."
Trump tweeted on Friday his concern about press briefings, saying, "As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!....," followed shortly by, "Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future 'press briefings' and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???"
And, in an interview with Fox News host Jeanine Pirro scheduled to air on Saturday, the president reinforced the idea of canceling press briefings saying, "You have a level of hostility that's incredible" from the media.
Spicer stressed the White House press team communicated the latest information they had available to the media, yet noted, "We see time and time again an attempt to parse every little word and make it a game of 'gotcha.'"
Spicer also criticized the media for not asking more questions about the president's agenda and policy initiatives.
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