Watch Replay: Sean Spicer’s Fiery, Contentious Briefing On ‘Wiretapping,' Russia And The Budget

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer arrived more than an hour late to his scheduled press briefing on Thursday and got into a tense argument with two reporters right out of the gate over President Trump's claims that President Obama "wiretapped" Trump Tower.

The briefing was scheduled for 2 p.m. Eastern on Thursday. But by 3 p.m., Spicer had not yet made it to the podium. He started speaking by 3:05. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch for daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

"Sorry for the delay," Spicer said when he finally arrived. "It's budget day."

Mick Mulvaney, director of Office of Management and Budget, was supposed to start the briefing, but he was delayed. He arrived and spoke after Spicer gave an initial statement.

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As soon as Spicer began taking questions, he was asked about the Senate Intelligence Committee's statement that there was no evidence to believe Trump's wiretapping claims. Spicer got into a heated argument with multiple reporters, saying that the media doesn't provide coverage when the ties between Trump and Russia are denied by official sources. (There have been many media reports about these kinds of claims, as well as reports that conflict with this information.)

Spicer refused to back down from defending Trump's claims, instead rattling off a series of media reports about intelligence surveillance more broadly — which essentially disproved his claim that the media was ignoring parts of the intelligence narratives.

At one point, he criticized CNN reporter Jim Acosta, who said that the people were aware of the stories Spicer referred to. He said Acosta had "no intelligence..." and then paused, leading to laughter. Spicer said he meant to say Acosta has "no intelligence clearance."

Asked whether the administration might reconsider Trump's tweeting habits and his aides' statements, given they were used against the White House in the ruling that suspended the revised immigration ban, Spicer said he thought the judicial decision was unwise, but he'd let the Justice Department make that case.

When pressed on the challenges of balancing the federal budget and meeting government obligations, Spicer said that the announcement of the budget blueprint was just the beginning of the process. Trump's plans, previously announced, to balance the budget in eight years while not touching Medicare or Social Security, are quite a daunting challenge.

Trump's pledge not to cut Medicaid will be broken if the American Health Care Act is passed; the bill cuts the deficit by reducing Medicaid spending.

At one point, discussing budget cuts with Axios' Jonathan Swan, Spicer made the mysterious claim, "There's this assumption in Washington, Jonathan, that if you get less money, it's a cut."

Spicer seemed to be trying to argue that getting rid of needless programs wasn't a bad thing, which may be true. But his claim that lowering the budget of (even wasteful) programs wasn't a "cut" was puzzling. Dictionary.com later made this point on Twitter:

Earlier in the briefing, Mulvaney discussed the implications of the new budget blueprint.

"It shouldn't surprise anybody that we have an America-first budget," he said.

Mulvaney noted that the budget does not reduce the deficit. Mulvaney said that questions about the deficit were not relevant at this stage of the budgeting procedures.

In response to questions about cuts to the State Department, Mulvaney said that these reductions are meant to target foreign aid. He said that the president strongly cares about diplomacy.

The OMB director also acknowledged that he believed the budget proposal could be unpopular with Congress.

When asked about why the administration was cutting foreign aid spending during a time of much turmoil and refugee crises across the globe, Mulvaney said the president was fulfilling his campaign promise to spend more money at home and less abroad.

"This is a hard power budget," he said. "Hard power" refers to foreign policy strategies that rely on military force and coercion, rather than "soft power" mechanisms like funding streams and diplomacy.

He also responded to a question about whether Trump was betraying his promise to rebuild American cities and help African-American communities by cutting spending by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He said the money would be reallocated to an infrastructure project later.

He noted that Meals on Wheels, a program that will likely be hit by the cuts, "sounds great," but that many such programs don't have a good return on investment.

Watch a replay of the proceedings below. (Skip the first hour to avoid a long wait!)

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