Sean Spicer Defends Claims About Aircraft Carrier 'Heading' To North Korea

WASHINGTON, DC — Press Secretary Sean Spicer defended his claims about the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson Wednesday, which he had said was headed toward North Korea when, in fact, it was headed in the opposite direction to the Indian Ocean.

"The statement that was put out was that the Carl Vinson group was headed to the Korean peninsula," he said. "It is headed to the Korean peninsula."

But when the White House had made this announcement last week, the Carl Vinson and three other ships that accompany it were headed in the opposite direction toward the Indian Ocean. When this was revealed by the New York Times Tuesday, many observers were surprised.

Spicer said that the administration's reports were not misleading, because they said the aircraft carrier would be "ultimately ending up at the Korean peninsula. That's what it will do."

But in a potentially revealing slip-up, Spicer said, "The president said that we have an armada going towards the peninsula. That's a fact, it happened. It's happening, rather."

Of course, whether it "happened" or "is happening" is the issue in question. Spicer's argument seems to be that because the aircraft carrier was intended to end up at the Korean Peninsula, there's nothing misleading about saying it was "headed" there, even while it was literally going in the opposite direction. But of course, a large part of the White House's job is communications, and clearly few who heard the president's comments got the impression that Spicer conveyed in Wednesday's clarification — which is why people were surprised to learn what had actually happened.

"If there's an impression, then that's not — there should have been clarification from people who were seeking it," Spicer said.

Watch a replay of the briefing here.

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