Reporters Roast Sean Spicer’s Breitbart Interview: “Most Awkward Thing Ever,” “Insanely Cringey”

Written by Eric Hananoki

Published

White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s “exclusive interview” with Breitbart.com crashed and burned. Reporters mocked the two-and-a-half-minute sit-down as “the most awkward thing ever” and “a glorious two-minute comedy of errors” that suffered from terrible production values.

Breitbart.com had announced on February 8 that Spicer would appear in an interview the following day with White House correspondent Charlie Spiering, who regularly produces fawning coverage of President Donald Trump. Breitbart is a leading defender of Trump, and several White House staffers are Breitbart alumni, including chief strategist Steve Bannon, who formerly chaired the website.

Spicer gave a short interview to the pro-Trump outlet last evening following the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ unanimous decision to not reinstate Trump’s travel ban targeting seven majority-Muslim countries.

The interview produced little of value; Breitbart.com was not even promoting the interview’s results on the top of its homepage as of posting time (the site is instead attacking comedian Rosie O'Donnell).  

Reporters reacted to the interview by noting its “moments of awkward silence,” comparing Spiering to “a 10-year-old who snuck into 1600 Penn,” and calling it a “total disaster” from a “production standpoint”:

The Washington Post’s Callum Borchers: “Sean Spicer’s Facebook Live interview with Breitbart News is the most awkward thing ever. … From a production standpoint, it was what Spicer's boss likes to call a ‘total disaster.’”

The Huffington Post’s Rebecca Shapiro: “The interview suffered from moments of awkward silence, unpleasant background noises and some strange camera angles.”

Esquire’s Sammy Nickalls: “This Breitbart interview was...not good.”

Death and Taxes’ Candace Bryan: “The interview is rife with awkward silences, harsh changes in sound levels, abrupt push-ins, and a reporter that looks like a 10-year-old who snuck into 1600 Penn after hiding behind the colonnades until Secret Service went on break and is now terrified he’s about to have his cover blown. ... Spicer himself looks as though he’s isn’t certain he isn’t being trolled.” 

Fusion’s Katherine Krueger: The interview was “insanely cringey.”

The A.V. Club’s Clayton Purdom: It was “a glorious two-minute comedy of errors, with production qualities rivaling the cringe-inducing crap cinema of Fateful Findings, A Talking Cat!?!, and even The Room.”

The Daily Beast’s Marlow Stern:

ThinkProgress’ Ned Resnikoff:

Gizmodo's Ashley Feinberg:

BuzzFeed’s Ryan Broderick: