In his first week as President of the United States, Donald Trump has signed multiple executive orders. After reports circulated that Trump would be bringing back the use of "black sites," White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was pressed on the issue during a press conference.
Spicer press conference
Sean Spicer has been under fire from the news media ever since his first press conference last week. Spicer, a former spokesman for the Republican National Committee, was ridiculed by the press and across social media for his recent defense of Donald Trump and his criticism of the inauguration crowd size.
On Wednesday morning, a report broke that claimed the new president was looking into reopening the use of "black sites," which are detention centers where suspected terrorists would be placed before the use of enhanced interrogation, or torture, by the CIA. As reported by MSNBC on January 25, Spicer and an MSNBC reporter clashed over the issue.
Spicer: President hasn't seen draft "black sites" memo "to best of my knowledge" https://t.co/aAJQymmghp
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) January 25, 2017
During Wednesday afternoon's press conference, MSNBC reporter Kristin Welker continued to question Sean Spicer about the report of Donald Trump and the "black sites." "I wanna go back to that draft executive order that would undo some of those restrictions in handling detainees," Welker said, before asking, "Has the president seen it?" "I'm sorry, the one that he's signing?" "No, no.
The draft executive order that would undo the restriction in how to handle detainees," Welker quickly clarified. Spicer pushed back, claiming that he didn't want to respond to anything that didn't come directly from the White House.
Trump weighs allowing CIA to reopen “black site” detention facilities: report https://t.co/KK1MwySmzd pic.twitter.com/vbxDu8y3J3
— The Hill (@thehill) January 25, 2017
"This is the second day in a row that we are getting asked about documents that are floating around," Sean Spicer said, while adding, "And reports that are being published that are attributing documents to the White House that are not White House documents." "Since it is floating around, is he considering bringing back black sites and waterboarding?" the MSNBC reporter asked.
Spicer, looking frustrated, cut Welker off, stating, "I'm not going to start answering hypothetical questions about documents floating around." When Welker attempted to continue, Spicer fired back, "Kristin, we're gonna end this right now."
Moving forward
As witnessed in the aforementioned press conference, Sean Spicer, Donald Trump, and the rest of the administration are still at odds with the majority of the news media.
In regards to the issue of "black sites," which was discontinued by President Obama, Trump has pushed for the use of waterboarding and other forms of torture when it relates to suspected terrorists, so it's likely that he would follow through with the report.