Press: Amateur hour at White House

Washington is still rocking from last week’s big shake-up at the White House. In the communications department, Sean Spicer is out and Anthony Scaramucci and Sarah Huckabee Sanders are in. And in the legal department, Marc Kasowitz and Mark Corallo are out; Ty Cobb, John Dowd and Jay Sekulow are in.

Of course, Spicer’s sudden departure got the most attention because Melissa McCarthy made him a national cartoon character. Spicer had put up with a lot of humiliation at the White House, including aides passing him notes from Trump in the middle of briefings. But he finally threw in the towel when Trump ignored his advice and hired snake-oil salesman Scaramucci from Wall Street as his boss.

{mosads}Still, shed no tears for Spicer. It was foolish of him to have taken the job in the first place, knowing that President Trump was impossible to work for. And, once in the position, he debased it and embarrassed himself. Spicer made a mockery of White House briefings, and not just on Saturday Night Live.

It was Spicer who cut short the briefings and banned TV cameras from briefings, except maybe once a week. It was Sean Spicer who spent the first half of every briefing reciting talking points about all the great things Donald Trump had accomplished in the past 24 hours — and then spent the second half of the briefing not directly answering any questions.

It was Spicer who told so many lies from the podium we called him “Four-Pinnochios.” He lied about the size of the crowd at the Inauguration, about 3 million to 5 million people voting illegally for Hillary Clinton and about President Obama’s wiretapping Trump Tower. Just last week, he lied about the purpose of Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with Russian officials, insisting they just talked about adoption.

And, of course, it was Sean Spicer who famously defended the rationale for Trump’s missile attack on Syria: “You had someone as despicable as Hitler, who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons.”

I’ve covered the White House under four press secretaries, and Sean Spicer is by far the worst. He might actually be rated the worst White House press secretary ever, except for this: Sarah Huckabee Sanders succeeds him. As bad as he was, at least Spicer was a pro. Sanders is a know-nothing amateur with a chip on her shoulder.

As for changes in the legal team, who cares? What’s significant is not which lawyers are in and which ones are out, but the fact that Trump is so worried about Mueller’s investigation that he feels the need to lawyer up and up. Clearly, Trump realizes that Mueller poses a serious threat to his presidency. It’s not just a “witch hunt.”

But, in the end, neither the shake-up in the communications or legal teams will make any difference. Yes, the White House is floundering badly. But the problem lies not at the bottom of the ladder but at the top. Nothing will change, no message will stick, no discipline will ensue — as long as Donald Trump is president.

Press is host of “The Bill Press Show” on Free Speech TV and author of “Buyer’s Remorse: How Obama Let Progressives Down.”

The views expressed by this author are their own and are not the views of The Hill.