"Do not come for ProPublica unless you are ready for ProPublica to come for you" is a lesson Sean Spicer had to learn Monday after calling the investigative nonprofit corporation a "left-wing blog."
It all started when ProPublica released a report on Monday morning that claimed a change had been made to President Donald Trump's trust such that he could "draw money from his more than 400 businesses, at any time, without disclosing it."
This revelation adds to the long list of Trump's business conflicts that have continued to provoke debate throughout his presidency and that have made people question the validity of Trump's statement that he was "turning over complete and total control" of his businesses before his inauguration.
When Spicer opened up Monday's press briefing for questions, it took just two minutes before a reporter cited the ProPublica investigation and asked for answers.
Spicer responded that although he was unsure if Trump had withdrawn funds from the trust, he was "somewhat surprised in the sense that anyone would find it shocking," He added, "A blind trust, or any kind of trust, rather, the whole entire point of setting it up is that somebody can withdraw money," he said.
Plus Spicer was also unaware if a change to the trust had been made at all. "Just because a left-wing blog makes the point of something changing doesn’t mean it actually happened," he said.
Well, ProPublica wasn't too fond of Spicer's incorrect and demeaning categorization. So it decided to drop some facts, since reporting is the cornerstone of its existence and all.
1/ So @seanspicer just called us a “left-wing blog.” Since we’re actually in the biz of facts, we figured we’d respond w/ a few...
— ProPublica (@ProPublica) April 3, 2017
.@seanspicer 2/ @seanspicer was trying to knock our story that Trump’s trust doc was revised to say he can take $ frm biz anytime https://t.co/xcohyMmoRc
— ProPublica (@ProPublica) April 3, 2017
.@seanspicer 3/ @seanspicer said he’s “not aware of any change in the trust.” And he then said this: https://t.co/44Rj2EZxDc pic.twitter.com/lrQpWkZjKh
— ProPublica (@ProPublica) April 3, 2017
.@seanspicer 4/ The Trump trust doc was revised & signed Feb. 10. Here you go, @seanspicer: https://t.co/f1SgoNeIJ1pic.twitter.com/9odXRrFEjV
— ProPublica (@ProPublica) April 3, 2017
The investigative organization also showed the receipts of when it had contacted the White House with this information but to no avail.
.@seanspicer 5/ We do no-surprises journalism. We told the Trump Org & WH what we knew and gave them time to explain.They didn’t. https://t.co/pYfcdEp64W pic.twitter.com/paZfZWr4W1
— ProPublica (@ProPublica) April 3, 2017
.@seanspicer 6/ What we do is hold people in power accountable, no matter who they are, or what names they call us. We do it with facts. Like...
— ProPublica (@ProPublica) April 3, 2017
Just in case Spicer forgot about the many other reports where ProPublica held "people in power accountable":
.@seanspicer 7/ The fact that Tom Price bought drug company stock same day he pushed policy that could help the company. https://t.co/nica3s6oi1
— ProPublica (@ProPublica) April 3, 2017
.@seanspicer 8/ The fact that Trump has quietly installed officials across the government to be his eyes and ears: https://t.co/UhSNXaGwBH
— ProPublica (@ProPublica) April 3, 2017
.@seanspicer 9/ The fact that Jared Kushner isn’t actually separating himself from his business empire: https://t.co/ZNFNVOkfdL
— ProPublica (@ProPublica) April 3, 2017
.@seanspicer 10/ Or the fact that 5 top Trump officials have made false statements to Congress:https://t.co/xQGhQwEWaF
— ProPublica (@ProPublica) April 3, 2017
.@seanspicer 11/ And yes, our job always has been and will be holding *all* those in power accountable.
— ProPublica (@ProPublica) April 3, 2017
The "left-wing blog" showed that its investigations have also looked at President Barack Obama.
.@seanspicer 12/ So, we wrote about fact that Obama caved to big banks and didn’t deliver on his promises to help homeowners: https://t.co/DnhEUzJIoP
— ProPublica (@ProPublica) April 3, 2017
.@seanspicer 13/ We wrote about former Obama officials lobbying to push through a merger that could make flying more miserable: https://t.co/coXWQ7PInF
— ProPublica (@ProPublica) April 3, 2017
.@seanspicer 14/ And wrote about how Obama was falling short on his own promises to grant pardons. https://t.co/eYO0xJLcT5
— ProPublica (@ProPublica) April 3, 2017
.@seanspicer 15/ So any other facts you’d like to know, @seanspicer?
— ProPublica (@ProPublica) April 3, 2017
But the mic drop moment came at the very end when ProPublica thanked Spicer for the free promo.
...and for all the new followers who found us today thanks to @seanspicer, do sign up for our fact-based newsletter: https://t.co/8aC8QGlYo6
— ProPublica (@ProPublica) April 4, 2017
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