About 1,200 students and members of the surrounding Amherst community attended former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s talk, hosted by the University of Massachusetts College Republicans on Tuesday evening at the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall.
Spicer spent the majority of his hour-long talk reflecting on his life, career in politics and his new book, “The Briefing: Politics, the Press and the President;” but his question and answer session that followed was not as smooth. A group of about seven college-age protestors sang in unison when Spicer attempted to answer questions. He offered one protester in particular to come up on the stage to speak after the protestor asked why white supremacists were allowed in the White House, but the man declined.
“If you want to have a civil and respectful discussion, I’m here. I’m staying,” Spicer said. When the protestor shouted that he doesn’t support platforms for “fascist white supremacists,” Spicer responded, “Neither do I. So we agree.”
Spicer added: “When you’re the ones getting booed on a college campus and I’m not, that tells you something.”
The few questions the audience did manage to ask centered around Spicer’s time in the White House working for President Trump. Of his most famous gaffes during his six months as Trump’s press secretary, Spicer claimed Trump’s inauguration crowd was the largest in United States history, despite clear photographic evidence against such claims.
“There is no question in my mind that that was not my finest day,” he said. “Could I have done things differently? Absolutely. It was our first day. We were trying to counter a narrative, and I don’t think we did it well. I take responsibility for that.”
He added he was proud of his time as President Trump’s press secretary, and that he did not regret working at the White House.
Before the moderator could ask another question, another protestor shouted that Spicer and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the current press secretary, have disrespected the press room at the White House. Spicer disagreed.
“The First Amendment gives every member of the press the ability and right to publish and write what they want, but I think it also gives each one of us the right to say and express ourselves,” Spicer said. “Frankly, if you go back and look at the journalist bill of rights, they actually invite criticism in their own profession. I think that’s what makes it right. You can’t just say, ‘Because I’m a journalist, I get to write what I want without any sense of criticism.’ That’s part of the process.”
Spicer claimed the biggest problem plaguing the country today is the demonization of political parties on both sides of the aisle.
“I am a passionate, committed, conservative Republican. I have worked very closely with both sides of the aisle,” Spicer said. “I think the problem with this country right now is that we demonize both sides. If you are a Trump supporter, you are the following. If you are a Hillary supporter, you are the following.
“Where we are missing the boat is where we demonize each other.”
A Connecticut College graduate, Spicer began working volunteering for political campaigns just after his senior year. Spicer helped a Connecticut Republican campaign in 1994 that lost by just two votes, something the former press secretary said motivated him to improve his craft. Spicer worked for President George W. Bush as a United States trade representative for three years before working for the Republican National Committee and former head of the party Reince Priebus during the 2012, 2014 and 2016 elections.
“If I went into [tonight] knowing absolutely nothing about Sean Spicer, I would’ve been like, ‘[he’s] not a bad guy,’” freshman psychology and legal studies major Danielle Reardon said. “Having watched everything from 2016-on, I find it hard to believe a lot of what he says, which was consistent with what I thought in 2016 as well.”
After working with Priebus to help Trump throughout the 2016 election, Spicer said he was surprised to be offered the position of press secretary after Trump’s victory, claiming he’d only spoken to the president about the job in “one-off conversations.”
Rachel Ellis, a sophomore political science major who identified herself as a moderate Democrat, went to Spicer’s talk to hear a different perspective than her own.
“UMass is really a hub for liberal conversation, and not so much for conservative conversation,” she said. “I was looking for another view tonight. I was excited to come here and see that and also support many of my friends who have worked on this project. I really appreciated how Sean Spicer came to our campus and spoke to the students as well as wanted to receive questions from students in the audience.”
Kyle DaLuz can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @Kyle_DaLuz.
amy • Nov 29, 2018 at 7:03 pm
Exactly Ray. Liberals are cheaters. They know deep down inside people don’t accept them, their ideas and that they can never win on merit so they always resort to gambits.
Ray Younghans • Nov 29, 2018 at 7:49 am
There were more people there than when Dr. Krauthammer spoke a few years ago – Imagine when told about his speaking there (Dr. Krauthammer) the campus television crew refused to tape it saying he wasn’t important. When WMR brought a person in to tape it they refused to give him the proper lighting to record the event
amy • Nov 28, 2018 at 11:15 pm
The police had to be there because leftist protesters are uncivil and out of control.
There is a difference between being civilized and freedom; liberals often confuse the two and don’t understand in america the consequences for being uncivilized and in the countries they have taken over to make socialists, what happens when you strip away civilization and standards of being civilized.
Also the comment speaks to the typical delusion of a liberal, ‘the number of liberals are rising’ liberals are constantly engaged in what I both I think is a concision deliberate manipulation through propaganda and lies to make it seem as if they are more them than really are and that they are the ‘future’ and they also not only are manipulative, but also personally themselves believe that delusion. In this context, liberals remind me of a mentally ill person who engages in antisocial or destructive behavior, you know it’s their mental illness but your also not sure how much of it is thought out and deliberate.
Conservatives are not ‘open their efforts to suppress the voices and political power of those who would identify and vote as liberals’. What is with the constant conspiracy theories? It’s sad that you constantly hear this from ‘educated’ people. It makes you doubt higher education as well, that it’s either a reflection of what they were taught or the low standards of colleges that admitted them
I am a moderate and I used to be like many people a democrat until they went crazy and became extreme. I am neither left or right; but because liberals are so crazy,uncivilized and unhinged, for the time being I am supporting republicans. I think it’s important to balance out liberals and democrats until they become normal again.
Brittany Goodnature • Nov 28, 2018 at 2:36 pm
The Republicans want to complain about free speech but didn’t even let the audience ask questions of Sean Spicer, only prepared questions on index cards. This is America, people have the right to protest! Moreover, This article doesnt even mention how many resources the university used to police non-existent leftist protestors and chill free speech overall. We shouldnt be affording the right free speech while squashing the left’s.
Ella • Nov 28, 2018 at 12:07 pm
The article also left out the efforts by Five College progressive student groups to buy out seats.
Also, for some much-needed context to the final point of the above comment – there are more conservatives than liberals, but the number of both conservatives and moderates is falling, and the number of liberals is rising (even as studies show that conservatives/liberals become more entrenched in their right/left identities). Other factors: most statistics on the ideology of Americans are based on party affiliation, which is not always accurate for a number of reasons; conservatives skew older and progressives skew younger; conservatives are open about their efforts to suppress the voices and political power of those who would identify and vote as liberals. We should also keep in mind that the most marginalized groups in the country tend to be left out of the electoral and political process that we get our statistics from.
amy • Nov 28, 2018 at 2:21 am
The article left out the heckling and the song the hecklers sang. It was pretty funny and Sean Spicer is a witty person; he was sharp and constantly making fun of the protesters and several times leaving them speechless.
Also the the overwhelming support was for sean spicer and he regularly got loud applause from the majority of the audience.
It’s very interesting if you think about it, 1,200 people go to see a republican but how many people see the countless liberals that come on campus and do talks? Maybe 10-20 , at most a 100 attend most liberal events.
If you look at statistics, they are actually more conservatives than liberals and most of the country is independent, even blue Massachusetts; 60 percent of voters are independent. If the majority of people in this country realized their power and that they didn’t have to be subjected to some left/right paradigm than there could be a revolution.