Donald Trump transition team spokesman Sean Spicer urged the news media to cover the protests of Sen. Jeff Sessions' nomination hearing Tuesday with the same vigor they did individuals identifying themselves as Trump supporters on the campaign trail.
There were numerous reports during the campaign of Trump supporters intimidating the opposition.
That call for equal diligence came on a conference call with reporters and at about the same time that waves of protestors were being forcibly ejected, repeatedly, from Sessions' Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing.
After singing Sessions' praises as a nominee, Spicer turned to the protests at the hearing, which was being streamed on the committee website and on C-SPAN.
He referred to "some of the folks on the left trying to interrupt the Democratic process," then pointed out that he, campaign spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway and others on the campaign trail had been "relentlessly peppered with questions regarding people who quote/unquote support Donald Trump asking whether or not we denounced this individual or that individual."
He said he hoped the journalists on the call—they included CNN, the New York Times and B&C—would as relentlessly ask leaders of the Democratic party whether they supported "these left-wing tactics."
He said it was one thing to have a disagreement, another to interrupt the process.
Spicer on the call also corrected his statement that former Senator and presidential candidate Bob Dole would be joining as vice chair of the transition team. He said that was not the case, though Dole would continue to advise in an unofficial capacity.
