Politics & Government

Watch Replay: Sean Spicer Criticizes CBO, Defends Firing Of Preet Bharara

The White House press secretary will address reporters at 1 p.m.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer delivered a televised briefing with reporters Monday afternoon, discussing topics such as the forthcoming Congressional Budget Office report, the firing of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and President Trump's salary.

The briefing, as has been typical, did not start promptly at 1 p.m. Spicer began with a statement which largely focused on the administration's view that Obamacare is failing and harming small businesses and people who buy insurance. He also announced that the president's first Cabinet meeting would be held Monday, after the briefing.

Spicer blamed Democrats for slowing down the confirmation of Trump's full Cabinet. Some of the delays, however, have been due to the administration's nominees withdrawing and the White House's slow process of officially nominating its choices to fill Cabinet seats.

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The first question of the briefing was about Preet Bharara, the former U.S. Attorney New York. Bharara was asked to resign over the weekend, despite reports that President Trump asked him to stay on in his role earlier. Bharara declined to resign and was fired.

Spicer was pressed on whether Trump violated his promise to Bharara that the attorney could stay on in his role, but Spicer did not answer this question.

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Spicer responded to questions about whether or not the White House was going to supply evidence for his claims that President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower. He pointed to news reports that suggested something like this might have happened, though none implicated Obama himself, but declined to present any futher evidence.

Spicer also said Trump would like the press to weigh in on where he should donate his presidential salary, a promise he has previously made.

One reporter asked about recent reports that some LGBTQ centers in the United States have been subject to violence and threats. Spicer said the president would denounce these actions, and denied that there was a likely connection to the administration's roll back of a federal policy that protected transgender students' rights to access the bathrooms of their choice in public schools.

Spicer also got into a testy exchange with a reporter over Trump's credibility, given his conflicting statement on whether or not the Bureau of Labor Statistics' data are accurate. Spicer insisted that everything Trump says "authorititatively" should be taken seriously, as long as he's not joking.

The press secretary also continued to express skepticism about Congressional Budget Office's forthcoming evaluation of the new health care bill by citing discrepancies between its predicitons and reality regarding Obamacare.

Watch a live stream of the proceedings below.

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty News Images/Getty Images

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