Sean Spicer, White
House press
secretary, resigns
House press
secretary, resigns
Story highlights
- Sean Spicer ended one of the most tumultuous White House press secretary tenures
- He for a time handled the responsibilities of both press secretary and communications director
(CNN)White House press secretary Sean Spicer resigned Friday morning, according to three White House officials.
Spicer's
resignation came after New York financier and former Trump campaign
fundraiser Anthony Scaramucci accepted the position as White House
communications director.
A White House official and top GOP adviser said President Donald Trump asked Spicer to stay on, but he resigned.
The
resignation caps off one of the most tumultuous tenures for a White
House press secretary, one that saw Spicer repeatedly undermined in his
role as the White House's public-facing spokesman by the President's own
public statements and tweets.
Spicer
handled the responsibilities of both press secretary and communications
director during much of his tenure, overseeing the White House's
response to a near non-stop deluge of controversy, particularly
concerning the widening federal investigation into potential ties
between Trump campaign associates and Russian officials.
White House staffers are "shocked" by Spicer's sudden resignation, two White House officials told CNN.
Trump wanted Scaramucci in the White House
Trump has been pushing for Scaramucci to come in for a while, according to a source familiar with the decision.
Since
the communications director job was open, he would install Scaramucci
in that role. This source added that Spicer worried Scaramucci wouldn't
know Washington and that it would fall to Spicer to do both jobs, which
he considered to be untenable.
Scaramucci's
hiring began to come together Thursday night, but as news of the hire
began to leak, Spicer, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and
chief strategist Steve Bannon found themselves largely in the dark --
unaware of the President's already firm intention to tap Scaramucci for
the top communications post, according to a source familiar with
Spicer's thinking.
Priebus told
reporters after the news broke, "I support Anthony 100%. We go back a
long long way and are very good friends -- all good here."
Spicer's job tough since day 1
Spicer
was repeatedly thrust into a combative role, ordered by the President
to take to the briefing room on his first full day in office to lambast
the media for coverage of the size of the crowd that attended Trump's
inauguration.
The moment quickly
defined Spicer's public-facing relationship with the press and his daily
White House briefing quickly became must-watch TV.
One
White House official said he believes a "fresh start will inject some
energy" in a communications operation that has been besieged for weeks
by the deluge of Russia-related reports and a sense of disarray.
This story is breaking and will update.
CNN's Jim Acosta and Gloria Borger contributed to this report.
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