Sean Spicer predicts six more years of Donald Trump
Former White House press spokesman Sean Spicer insists that Donald Trump will remain as president for six more years, saying the US must come back together and stop undermining its systems of government.
Mr Spicer made the prediction as he denied Russian collusion in the 2016 US presidential election; defended the removal of immigrant children from their parents; and questioned the value of investigations into Mr Trump.
At an Institute of International and European Affairs event in Dublin yesterday, Mr Spicer said far-right organiser Steve Bannon was a “good steward” for Mr Trump’s message and claimed that despite “style” concerns, most Americans back the president’s “results”.
Acknowledging the significant opposition to his tenure both in the US and abroad, he predicted Mr Trump will win the 2020 presidential election and remain in the White House until 2024.
“Six years,” Mr Spicer said immediately when asked how long Mr Trump will remain in power.
“It’s not just what I’m saying, I’m telling you what the polls said. It’s not my opinion, this is literally what it is. That is what every consistent poll shows.”
Mr Spicer rejected evidence of Russian collusion in the 2016 election.
Downplaying the attacks as “meddling”, he said after 18 months of investigations, there has been no “evidence” of any wrongdoing or that the Russians secretly backed Mr Trump’s campaign.
“There’s meddling and there’s collusion. On meddling, there’s no doubt, hands down, no question that Russia tried to meddle in the US election,” said Mr Spicer.
“But that’s morphed into collusion, and I have not seen anything to believe there was any kind of collusion.”
He dismissed ongoing inquiries by saying that “the Democrats would spend all of their time just investigating as opposed to legislating” if they could.
Mr Spicer admitted there have been difficulties in how the crackdown on illegal immigrants coming to the US has been handled in light of shocking images of children being held in makeshift cells. Despite saying the US must remain “a beacon of hope and freedom”, he backed the immigration policies.
“Obviously those [child images] are very difficult to look at, but again we’ve got to do what we can to make sure children are protected, not trafficked, not coming in to be abused in any way.”
Mr Spicer rejected suggestions that Mr Trump has created divisions, saying “if it was up to him, he would like people to come together”.
He side-stepped questions on whether he would like to become the US ambassador to Ireland and said he does not miss his old job.
When asked if he has any regrets, he referenced his book, The Briefing: “Have you read the book? Buy that and then ask the question.”
