White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer got heated with American Urban Radio Networks reporter April Ryan during Tuesday’s briefing, telling her to “stop shaking your head.” Ryan eventually told MSNBC that Spicer made her “roadkill” today.
Ryan, who told Spicer that he didn’t seem happy before asking a question (at the 26:45 mark in the video above), asked him how the administration might try to “revamp its image” because of what she cited as a series of failures, pointing to Russian ties and wiretapping claims as examples.
“I get it, but I’ve said it from the day that I got here until whatever, that there is no connection. You’ve got Russia. If the president puts Russian salad dressing on his salad tonight, somehow that’s a Russian connection,” Spicer said.
Ryan tried to interject, but Spicer didn’t let up.
“I appreciate your agenda here, but the reality is — hold on,” he said. “At some point, report the facts.”
He continued: “I’m sorry that disgusts you. You’re shaking your head.”
Spicer went on to criticize Ryan’s follow-up question about Condoleezza Rice’s recent meeting with Trump, and the veteran reporter apparently shook her head once again.
“I’m sorry, please stop shaking your head again,” Spicer said (at the 29:10 mark above).
Moments after the briefing, Ryan responded with a simple one-word message on Twitter:
Lawd!!!!
— AprilDRyan (@AprilDRyan) March 28, 2017
Ryan then went on MSNBC to elaborate further.
“I’ve been here for 20 years, since 1997, the second term of Bill Clinton,” Ryan told MSNBC’s Katy Tur. “We’ve never seen anything like this before. And my question was simple. How do you change the perception problem, basically? I don’t know verbatim what I said, but that was the impetus and the crux of my question. And it went off into this Russian dressing, no shaking my head or whatever.”
She continued: “Sean is being the White House press secretary talking about and trying to make this administration look better than what it does right now. Unfortunately, I was roadkill today.”