--- title: Sean Spicer Blasts 'Fake News' on Donald Trump description: Speaking on-camera for the first time in nearly two weeks, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer echoed his boss's criticism of the media. canonical: https://time.com/4798343/sean-spicer-fake-news-jared-kushner/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-30T19:59:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T05:10:22.532Z article:section: Politics og:title: White House Blasts 'Fake News,' Won't Answer Questions on Jared Kushner og:description: The President's agenda has been overshadowed by "false narratives." og:url: https://time.com/4798343/sean-spicer-fake-news-jared-kushner/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c4a3bea53acf6f5/6988ca8886f68e37326e46a7/jared-kushner-white-house-gettyimages-633013334.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Jared Kushner (2L), Press Secretary Sean Spicer (2R), and Security Advisor Michael Flynn (R), with President Trump,as he speaks on the phone to King Salman of Saudi Arabia in the Oval Office on Jan. 29, og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House Blasts 'Fake News,' Won't Answer Questions on Jared Kushner twitter:description: The President's agenda has been overshadowed by "false narratives." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c4a3bea53acf6f5/6988ca8886f68e37326e46a7/jared-kushner-white-house-gettyimages-633013334.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House Blasts 'Fake News,' Won't Answer Questions on Jared Kushner  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson May 30, 2017 7:59 PM UTC  Jared Kushner (2L), Press Secretary Sean Spicer (2R), and Security Advisor Michael Flynn (R), with President Trump,as he speaks on the phone to King Salman of Saudi Arabia in the Oval Office on Jan. 29, 2017. Jared Kushner (2L), Press Secretary Sean Spicer (2R), and Security Advisor Michael Flynn (R), with President Trump,as he speaks on the phone to King Salman of Saudi Arabia in the Oval Office on Jan. 29, 2017.Mandel Ngan—AFP/Getty Images  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson May 30, 2017 7:59 PM UTC Echoing President Trump’s tweets, a White House spokesman blasted “fake news” about the Administration and declined to answer questions about recent reports on Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. In his first on-camera press briefing in nearly two weeks, [White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer](http://time.com/4779630/sean-spicer-donald-trump-tapes-recordings/) argued that news stories that use anonymous sources are unreliable, and called recent reports in the [Washington _Post_ ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-ambassador-told-moscow-that-kushner-wanted-secret-communications-channel-with-kremlin/2017/05/26/520a14b4-422d-11e7-9869-bac8b446820a%5Fstory.html?tid=sm%5Ftw&utm%5Fterm=.81d4f7707ab6)and the [New York _Times_ ](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/26/us/politics/kushner-talked-to-russian-envoy-about-creating-secret-channel-with-kremlin.html)that [Kushner](http://time.com/4796868/john-kelly-defends-jared-kushner-russia/) had worked to establish backchannel communications with Russia during the presidential transition unsubstantiated. “There’s a lot of this stuff that has gotten pushed out based on unnamed unaccountable sources and it is very troubling,” he said. “And I think when you see the same kind of thing happen over and over again it is concerning.” The White House is not always troubled by anonymous sources. Earlier Tuesday, Trump [retweeted](https://twitter.com/foxandfriends/status/869458369903566848) a link to [a Fox News story](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/05/29/jared-kushner-didnt-suggest-russian-communications-channel-in-meeting-source-says.html) which claimed, based on a single anonymous source, that Kushner did not discuss setting up a backchannel with Russia at the meeting. Spicer added that the President’s agenda and accomplishments have been overshadowed by a “perpetuation of false narratives.” “He’s frustrated … to see stories come out that are patently false, to see narratives that are wrong, to see ‘fake news,'” Spicer explained. Pressed for an example of “fake news,” Spicer cited [a widely circulated tweet](https://twitter.com/BBCJLandale/status/868418708502441986) from a BBC reporter at the G7 Summit in Italy that appeared to showTrump without a translation headset while the Italian Prime Minister was speaking. Spicer had [already noted on Twitter](https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/868449893819588608) that Trump was wearing a single earpiece that was not visible in the video. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4798343/sean-spicer-fake-news-jared-kushner/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4798343/sean-spicer-fake-news-jared-kushner/"},"headline":"White House Blasts 'Fake News,' Won't Answer Questions on Jared Kushner","datePublished":"2017-05-30T19:59:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T05:10:22.532Z","description":"Speaking on-camera for the first time in nearly two weeks, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer echoed his boss's criticism of the media.","url":"https://time.com/4798343/sean-spicer-fake-news-jared-kushner/","keywords":["White House","Donald Trump","onetime","sean spicer"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c4a3bea53acf6f5/6988ca8886f68e37326e46a7/jared-kushner-white-house-gettyimages-633013334.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c4a3bea53acf6f5/6988ca8886f68e37326e46a7/jared-kushner-white-house-gettyimages-633013334.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Jared Kushner (2L), Press Secretary Sean Spicer (2R), and Security Advisor Michael Flynn (R), with President Trump,as he speaks on the phone to King Salman of Saudi Arabia in the Oval Office on Jan. 29,","caption":"Jared Kushner (2L), Press Secretary Sean Spicer (2R), and Security Advisor Michael Flynn (R), with President Trump,as he speaks on the phone to King Salman of Saudi Arabia in the Oval Office on Jan. 29, 2017.","creditText":"Mandel Ngan—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4798343/sean-spicer-fake-news-jared-kushner/","name":"White House Blasts 'Fake News,' Won't Answer Questions on Jared Kushner"}}]}] ```