Sean Spicer's first paid speaking gig will be in New York City on Sept. 11, at the annual conference of the investment bank Rodman & Renshaw. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo
President Donald Trump’s former press secretary will go on the paid speaking circuit.
Sean Spicer is cashing in on “candor.”
President Donald Trump’s first press secretary – who ceded his high-profile post to Sarah Huckabee Sanders in July but celebrated his official last day in the West Wing on Aug. 31 – has signed with Worldwide Speakers Group, the company confirmed to POLITICO.
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“Audiences around the world will benefit from the same candor, wit and insight that Spicer brought to the White House briefing room,” Worldwide Speakers Group writes about Spicer in its pitch to potential customers, an early copy of which was reviewed by POLITICO.
But at his first briefing in January, Spicer falsely claimed the size of the crowd at Trump’s inauguration was bigger than President Barack Obama’s crowd eight years earlier, despite photographic evidence to the contrary – and then refused to take questions from reporters. In July, CNN preemptively said it would not hire Spicer, citing credibility issues related to that and other false statements made from the podium.
Spicer’s tenure in the White House often put him in what seemed to be an impossible position, being forced to defend claims by the president for which there was no basis in fact. But he remains in high demand on the speaking circuit, in part as an inside player with a unique vantage point on a historic election and on the opening months of the Trump presidency.
His first paid speaking gig will be in New York City on Sept. 11, at the annual conference of the investment bank Rodman & Renshaw, according to two people familiar with his schedule.
A spokesman for Worldwide Speakers Group said in a statement: “We are thrilled to provide Sean for our major trade association, corporate, university and public lecture series customers around the world. With his well-known candor and extensive experience, Sean is uniquely qualified to help audiences understand how the political environment will impact them now and in the future.”
The spokesman declined to comment on how much Spicer would be paid per speech. Spicer declined to comment for this story.
Delivering paid speeches – the lucrative and well-trod pasture of former lawmakers and their name-brand aides – will be one of the main components of Spicer’s post-White House life, according to multiple people briefed on his plans. But he is also planning to pitch a book proposal and his agent, Robert Barnett, as of last week was making the rounds to networks to negotiate a possible deal for his client. So far, he has yet to nail down a paid television talking-head gig.
For months, agents in Washington have been playing the guessing game about who would be the first Trump insider to cash in on a book about the administration. In a saturated news environment, it is not exactly clear what that book would be.
“This is simultaneously the most opaque and the most transparent administration in history,” said Keith Urbahn, whose company, Javelin, represents former FBI Director James Comey and Democratic operative Donna Brazile. “There are not a lot of secrets. They are leaked every day in the newspapers. So you really have to think through what the book is, because publishing into a news cycle like this is a challenge.”
But Spicer, other agents have said, could have an interesting story to tell about his interactions with the media and his relationship with the press when the cameras were off.
The most famous former press secretary to pen a book about his experience inside the bubble is Scott McClellan, the former spokesman for President George W. Bush whose tell-all, “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception” criticized his former boss for the way he sold the decision to invade Iraq in 2003. The book was widely criticized by other Bush operatives, who painted McClellan as an opportunist who never voiced any skepticism about the administration’s foreign policy decisions when he was on the inside.
“The criticism from some in Washington will be directed at those that write an honest account, versus those that write a book simply because they have an opportunity to leverage it for their own personal reasons,” McClellan said in an interview. “My intention was totally different when I wrote it. I decided if I tell it from my perspective, based on what the truth is, I’ll let the chips fall where they may.”
Spicer is joining Worldwide’s roster of paid talent, which includes former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Fox contributor Tomi Lahren, former Obama communications director Jen Psaki, and former Trump campaign deputy manager David Bossie, among others.
Since late July, when Spicer resigned as White House press secretary following the appointment of Anthony Scaramucci as communications director, he has been exploring opportunities available to a former Republican National Committee spokesman who virtually overnight became a household name – thanks to the country’s obsessive focus on all things Trump, as well as to comedian Melissa McCarthy’s recurring impersonation of Spicer as a surprisingly endearing rage case on “Saturday Night Live.”
He turned down an opportunity to appear on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.” But he has been exploring others ways to make a living based on his unique position as one of the best-known faces of the opening months of the Trump administration – interviewing about ten speakers’ bureaus over the past month that had expressed interest in signing him as a client.
When Scaramucci announced that Sanders would be replacing Spicer, he wished him success in his next chapter. “I hope he goes on to make a tremendous amount of money,” Scaramucci said at his one-and-done press conference in the White House briefing room.
Trump also sent him off with well-wishes, tweeting that Spicer is “a wonderful person who took tremendous abuse from the Fake News Media - but his future is bright!”
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