Sean Spicer Resigns As White House Press Secretary

WASHINGTON, DC — Sean Spicer, President Trump's scrappy and combative press secretary known for his animated clashes with the media and a propensity for making wild claims in defense of the administration, resigned from his position Friday as the White House struggles to maintain control of its message amid the all-consuming Russia investigation. Sarah Huckabee Sanders will take over as press secretary.

According to New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush, Spicer left over the hiring of Anthony Scaramucci as White House communications director. Multiple reports suggested that Spicer long opposed bringing Scaramucci, an entrepreneur, Fox News contributor and enthusiastic defender of Donald Trump, on to the president's team. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

"It's been an honor & a privilege to serve @POTUS @realDonaldTrump & this amazing country. I will continue my service through August," Spicer said in a tweet.

Dana Bash of CNN reported that Spicer said the president's team "could benefit from a clean slate."

Ari Fleischer, a former White House press secretary under President George W. Bush, said on Fox News that Spicer's move was "unsettling" but also "part of the White House process." He added that he "wouldn't be surprised if other people leave."

Rumors frequently bubbled up during Spicer's tenure at the White House that his time as press secretary could be short. In June, Fox News reported that he was offered a more senior role in the administration and would be leaving the press secretary position; that promotion, however, apparently never materialized.

Watch: White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer Is Out

Fox News said Spicer will appear Friday night on Sean Hannity's show.

Spicer's time in the press room was rocky from the day of Trump's inauguration. After media reports showed that President Obama drew a larger crowd to his inauguration than Trump did, Spicer was sent to the White House press room to deny the undeniable. Trump has a larger crowd than Obama did, Spicer declared, in the face of photographic evidence to the contrary.

From there, things only got worse.

Spicer's fiery tone and habit of squabbling with reporters quickly made the daily briefing — previously a generally uninteresting affair — must-see TV. He would often challenge the premise of reporters' questions or simply refuse to answer them. He bemoaned the fact that reporters were critical of the president, insisting that they didn't cover enough of the good things the administration did.

Questions about the Russia investigation continually drew Spicer's ire. "If the president puts Russian salad dressing on his salad tonight, somehow that's a Russian connection," Spicer once said.

In one memorable exchange, he interrupted April Ryan, then a reporter with American Urban Radio Networks, multiple times while she asked about the negative perceptions the Russia investigation had generated. When Ryan shook her head at Spicer in frustration, he chided her saying, "Stop shaking your head."

SEE ALSO: Sarah Huckabee Sanders Delivers First Briefing After Sean Spicer Resigns

Donald Trump Vs. Sean Spicer: 5 Times The President And The Press Sec. Couldn't Agree On The Facts

He appeared to have no compunction about defending the president's most outlandish and sometimes contradictory statements. When the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported positive job growth under Trump — numbers the president had excoriated as fake when he was a candidate — Spicer read a statement saying, "They may have been phony in the past, but it's very real now.”

When Trump accused Obama of "wiretapping" Trump Tower without any evidence, Spicer gave his all in defending the claims. But he might have went a step too far when he cited Judge Andrew Napolitano's report on Fox News that British intelligence helped Obama spy on Trump — an unfounded claim that the network later distanced itself from. Reports said that Spicer later had to apologize to an offended British government.

But perhaps Spicer's most famous moment at the podium is when he unnecessarily and inexplicably brought up Adolf Hitler.

"You had someone who is despicable as Hitler who didn't even sink to using chemical weapons," Spicer said, trying to emphasize the horror of the chemical attacks of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

However, the Nazis did use lethal gas to kill people in concentration camps. Spicer later clarified that he meant that Hitler did not use sarin gas in the way Assad did, but he only caused more confusion.

"He was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing," Spicer added when pressed. "He brought them into the Holocaust centers, I understand that. But [not] in the way that Bashar al-Assad used them where he went into towns, dropped them down, into the middle of towns."

These comments were widely condemned, not just for their flagrant disregard of the basic facts of one of the world's greatest crimes but also for the fact that they were completely unnecessary. There was no need to discuss Hitler at the time, and anyone with a passing knowledge of public relations would tell you to avoid bringing up the Holocaust without good reason.

Meet The New White House Communications Director

Spicer's antics inspired a repeated segment on "Saturday Night Live," which has been all too happy to needle the administration. Melissa McCarthy, a comedian known for her over-the-top commitment to gags, took on the role of impersonating the press secretary. Reports suggested that Trump found it unsettling that Spicer was played by a woman.

Referring to himself as "Spicey," McCarthy's impression of the man quickly became as iconic as Tina Fey's Sarah Palin or Will Ferrell's Bush. She yelled at reporters, used dolls to explain administration positions and used a Super Soaker to tame an unruly press corps.

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