Donald Trump v. Sean Spicer: 5 Times Their Stories Didn't Line Up

Sean Spicer, who served as the White House press secretary for the first six months under the Donald Trump administration, resigned from the post on Friday, ending a tenure that was filled with clashes with members of the press corps and oftentimes included contradictory messaging coming from the White House. Spicer's resignation came as Anthony Scaramucci was hired as White House communications director by Trump.

The inconsistent messaging coming from the White House often had to do with the president himself directly contradicting what Spicer would say or vice versa. Spicer at times was unable to answer basic questions about the president's thinking or views on various national and international issue. As David Graham notes in The Atlantic, Spicer's responses to basic questions are often, "I'll get back to you on that" or that he hasn't spoken to the president or that the president's tweet "speaks for itself." Graham writes that is almost impossible to believe that Spicer has not spoken to the president about such issues as Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Here are five times when the president and the press secretary contradicted each other:

James Comey Firing

The firing of FBI director James Comey sent shockwaves across Washington as many speculated what had led to the ouster of the FBI director. The White House made it clear that the firing had to do with a memo prepared by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that recommended Comey be fired. The former FBI director had told Congress at a public hearing that the bureau was investigating any possible collusion between members of the Trump campaign and Russia as part of its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

In an interview with NBC's Lester Holt, Trump said he was going to fire the FBI director regardless of the recommendation from Justice Department officials. However when asked about the apparent contradiction at a press briefing on May 12, Spicer said the president made the decision in part based on the recommendation. On May 9, in an official statement released by Spicer on behalf of the White House, he said the president acted on the "clear recommendations of both Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions."

Donald Trump Jr. Meeting With Russian Nationals

The New York Times first reported on a meeting between the president's eldest son and a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin that took place just after Trump clinched the Republican nomination for president. Though Donald Trump Jr. first stated that the meeting had to do with adoption of Russian children, which has been banned by Putin, he later conceded he was offered damaging information on Trump's opponent in the general election, Hillary Clinton. It is unclear if the younger Trump took the Russians up on the offer.

President Trump himself tweeted that "most politicians" would have gone to a meeting like the one his son attended to get information on an opponent.

"That's politics!" he tweeted.

Asked about the president's tweet, Spicer said, "It is quite often for people who are given information during the heat of a campaign to ask what that is." He added that it is simply what the president was trying to say through his tweet and that there was nothing, as far as we know, that would lead anyone to believe that anything outside of adoption or the Magnitsky Act was discussed at the meeting.

Emails released by Donald Trump Jr. showed that he was lured with the prospect of damaging information on Clinton.

"Tapes"

Soon after the firing of James Comey, the president created quite a stir when he tweeted that Comey better hope there are no tapes of the conversations he had with the former FBI director in the White House. He appeared to be threatening Comey with the prospect that he would be releasing the tapes.

Since the president's initial tweet on the "tapes," it wasn't made clear until more than a month later whether such tapes existed. The president conceded that they did not on June 22. On the day of the tweet, Spicer was asked about the "tapes" and answered that the president had no further comment on the matter and refused to deny whether the president records his conversations.

North Korea And China

After the death of Otto Warmbier, the American student who was detained by the North Korean regime and released back to the United States in a coma, Spicer was asked whether the administration had anything to say to China about Warmbier's death.

"We've had, I think, positive movement on China over the past five months of this administration, and we'll continue to work with them and others to put the appropriate pressure on North Korea to change this behavior and this regime," Spicer answered.

His statement was undercut by the president who tweeted shortly after the briefing that China's help with North Korea has not worked out.

Erdogan's Victory In Turkey

After President' Recep Tayyip Erdogan's victory in a Turkish referendum in April that gave him sweeping powers, it was reported that Trump had called the Turkish president to congratulate him on his win amid reports that observers had concerns about the fairness of the election. Before news of the phone call, Spicer was asked whether the president was concerned about reports from international monitors that the referendum had irregularities in it.

Spicer said the administration would wait and let the international commission reviewing the election issue its report, which he said could take 10 to 12 days, before commenting. After he was repeatedly pressed on the issue, Spicer said the administration would rather not get ahead of the commission's report.

Photo by Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images/Getty Images News