Sean Spicer has refuted on his Twitter account a CNN report that staffers gave him “several” Super Soakers as a joke following Melissa McCarthy’s impression of him on “SNL.”
CNN’s “Reliable Sources” host Brian Stelter, who said on Twitter staffers made a gift of “several” Super Soaker squirt guns to the White House press secretary. In the sketch, McCarthy’s Spicer used a Super Soaker full of soapy water against a reporter in response to a question Spicer didn’t like.
Spicer took to Twitter to call Stelter out for the tweet, saying it was wrong and piling on with the repreated Trump administration claims that CNN is “fake news.”
And they would be wrong. Which is par for the course for you https://t.co/Ztp0UOcCiU
— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) February 12, 2017
Stelter said the story came from CNN National Correspondent Sunlen Serfaty, who received the information from anonymous sources. Spicer didn’t seem like he was too bothered by the sketch. Trump, on the other hand, was very bothered by it, according to a Politico report. The thing that reportedly bugged Trump more than the joking portrayal of Spicer was the fact that he was played by a woman in the “SNL” sketch.
A senior White House source tells CNN's @SunlenSerfaty that staffers gifted @SeanSpicer with "several" super soakers this week pic.twitter.com/X62i0nYNXE
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) February 10, 2017
Politico reported that Spicer wanted to publicly joke about the sketch at a White House press briefing. Trump reportedly wasn’t fond of the idea, and shut it down.
The positive response to McCarthy’s initial appearance as Spicer led to her reprising the role in the “SNL” cold open on Feb. 11. Alec Baldwin, who played the role of Trump through the election and beyond, hosted the episode.
So excited was the Internet by McCarthy’s first turn as Spicer that Twitter users began suggesting that Rosie O’Donnell should play Trump Chief Strategist Steve Bannon. The depiction would be a particular thumb in the eye for Trump. He has a longstanding feud with O’Donnell, calling her out during his debates with Hillary Clinton before the election. (O’Donnell, for her part, caught flak for retweeting a video suggesting Donald and Melania Trump’s son, Barron, suffered from autism.)
“SNL,” at least so far, hasn’t opted to bring O’Donnell on as Bannon.