Former White House press secretary Josh Earnest Friday said that President Donald Trump needs to "empower" spokesman Sean Spicer.
"I'm sympathetic to Sean's plight when he says there are days when he can't into the Oval Office before the he does the briefing," Earnest, who served under former President Barack Obama, told Katy Tur on MSNBC. "That is a basic, fundamental responsibility of somebody for speaking for the president of the United States.
"That’s not Sean's fault," he continued. "That's the fault of the president of the United States, who needs to empower his press secretary and his spokespeople to understand what he's thinking and be able to accurately relate it to the world."
The communications issues facing the Trump administration "are a problem and a flaw that starts at the top," Earnest said.
Spicer said at Friday's briefing that he occasionally has problems trying to meet with Trump before he talks with reporters because of the president's "very robust schedule."
"Sometimes, we don’t have an opportunity to get in to see him to get his full thinking," he said. "In those cases, we do our best to follow up with you."
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