On Wednesday, Sean Spicer offered what may be the most absurd lie of his whopper-filled tenure as White House spokesman.
“The president made women’s empowerment a priority throughout the campaign,” Spicer said, with a totally straight face, to a room full of reporters.
Watch:
To be clear, Spicer was speaking of the president. Donald Trump. The one who was caught on tape saying he grabs women “by the pussy,” and who is the author of this tweet:
Spicer told reporters on Wednesday that later in the day, Trump would drop by a panel devoted to women’s empowerment hosted by the White House, and led by Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Also in attendance would be Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley ― that’s 75 percent of the women in Trump’s Cabinet. There are just four, including Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, in the 24-member group.
The last time a first-term president put so few women in his Cabinet was 1980.
Trump’s so into empowering women that he hires one woman for every three men for his White House staff, according to an analysis by Bloomberg. In some departments ― Commerce, Treasury, Energy ― fewer than 15 percent of Trump appointees are women, according to the analysis.
Spicer noted that during the campaign, Trump spoke about affordable child-care and paid family leave. That’s true. He spoke of those things late in the summer at the prompting of his daughter ― after a year of saying almost nothing on the subjects.
Since then, Trump has spoken of them one other time ― in a speech before a joint session of Congress ― and offered no further indication that he’s moving forward on any policies.
More recently, Trump got rid of a regulation that ensured government contractors don’t discriminate against women.
Spicer also ticked off some women-stuff Trump and his family have done since entering office ― a joint venture with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a round-table discussion led by daughter Ivanka Trump, and a speech by first lady Melania Trump.
Spicer didn’t mention that the president moved to reinstate restrictions on women’s health on his first day in office ― and that he did it in a room surrounded by other men. Just last week, Trump tried to restrict women’s health in the failed GOP health care bill by curtailing aspects of Obamacare that guaranteed access to maternity care.
At Wednesday’s panel, the Trump administration women in attendance will “speak about the unique challenges that women and young girls face today,” Spicer said.
Twitter users brought their A+ GIF game in response to Spicer’s comments: