After about a month in the White House, press secretary Sean Spicer really wanted a mini fridge. Who could blame him? What a nice office perk. Having cold drinks on hand at all times? Sounds wonderful.
Unfortunately, Spicer went about procuring a fridge in a manner that could best be described as ill-advised. A Wall Street Journal report detailed the long and winding road to Spicer's high-profile resignation Friday and began with an anecdote that showed the press secretary hatching a plan to steal a fridge from junior staffers.
Wrote Michael C. Bender of the Journal: "[Spicer] dispatched a top aide to a nearby executive office building where junior research employees are crammed into a room, surviving on Lean Cuisine frozen lunches. Mr. Spicer wants your icebox, the aide said, according to people familiar with the incident. They refused to give it up."
Now, here is the moment Spicer could have shifted gears. It's already (as the kids say) a bad look to demand the workers underneath you give up their icebox. Kudos to them for turning down a senior staffer. But Spicer wasn't satisfied. There is a Walmart about 1.5 miles from the White House where the press secretary could have bought a mini fridge (for as little as $60!). Instead, he waited. Then, he pounced.
Wrote Bender in the Journal: "So Mr. Spicer waited until sundown—after his young staffers had left—to take matters into his own hands. He was spotted by a fellow White House official lugging the icebox down the White House driveway after 8 p.m."
Among Sean Spicer's many difficulties: He even had trouble taking a mini-fridge from junior White House staffershttps://t.co/LFXN1syKrP pic.twitter.com/j7X9SajB7i
— Michael C. Bender (@MichaelCBender) July 21, 2017
Spicer had a brief and tumultuous time as press secretary. He resigned Friday (but will stay on through August) after he was reportedly dismayed by President Donald Trump's hiring of New York financier Anthony Scaramucci as his next communications director.
Spicer's tenure in the White House has been riddled with gaffes (like wearing his American flag pin upside down, accidentally sending out a distress signal), missteps (such as an ill-advised Hitler comparison) and angry confrontations (like saying "covfefe" was a secret word that made sense to Trump). But soon all that will be done for him, and he can return home—where one presumes he has a full-sized fridge.
