Spicer: Critics of Emmy skit should lighten up
Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer says his surprise Emmy Awards appearance Sunday night was a chance to have some fun, and he suggested Tuesday that people who were upset by it were taking things too seriously.
Emmys host Stephen Colbert set the joke up by saying there was no way of knowing how many people would be watching the Emmys, then Spicer wheeled out from behind a podium to say, “This will be the largest audience to witness an Emmys period, both in person and around the world.”
The clear reference was to Spicer’s first appearance in the White House press room, arguing against photographic evidence about how large President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day audience was.
Trump critics resented the apparent effort to “normalize” Spicer and make light of the idea of not telling the truth in the White House press room.
“The message of his presence was not only that we can all laugh at his service and sycophancy in the Trump administration, but that he’s willing to laugh with us,” Frank Bruni wrote in The New York Times.
Commentator Keith Olbermann tweeted that the Emmys lost its credibility by lionizing Spicer. Even a Republican strategist, Kevin Madden, warned on CNN that Spicer should be wary of equating notoriety with respect.
To which Spicer, reached on an airplane on Tuesday, offered a suggestion: lighten up. “People are reading too much into this,” he said.