Spicer on the covfefe tweet: “The President and a small group of people know exactly what he meant.” (via @MSNBC)
During a press briefing today, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said that a small group of people understand what President Donald Trump meant when he posted a strange, incomplete tweet shortly after midnight.
At 12:06 a.m. on May 31st, Donald Trump tweeted, “Despite the constant negative press covfefe.” There was no end to the tweet. Trump clearly meant to write “coverage” but misspelled it and inadvertently sent the tweet before it was finished, but the incomplete tweet subsequently stayed on Trump’s account for several hours before finally being deleted in the early hours of the morning.
During a press briefing on Wednesday afternoon, Sean Spicer was asked if Americans should be concerned over the fact that the president sent an incomprehensible tweet at midnight and that it remained on his profile for so long. Spicer simply said, “No.”
Members of the press then asked Spicer what Trump meant by the tweet, in particular wondering what “covfefe” means. Spicer said, “The president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant.”
Spicer’s statement caused members of the media to laugh, and the White House press secretary quickly moved on. Today’s White House press briefing was audio only, but video of the moment being aired on MSNBC can be viewed in the embedded player above.
Earlier today, President Donald Trump seemed to revel in the fact that people were confused about the covfefe tweet. Rather than simply saying that it was a typo, Trump tweeted, “Who can figure out the true meaning of “covfefe” ??? Enjoy!”
It has become a regular occurrence at White House press briefings for Sean Spicer to be asked to clarify a tweet of President Trump’s. Spicer almost always says something to the effect of “The tweet speaks for itself.” He is often asked to clarify what the president meant by something, but Spicer rarely ever does so, instead saying that it’s clear from the tweet what Trump meant or that, in this case, a small group understands his intentions.