Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday Americans — including Hollywood actors like Ton Hanks — need to start respecting their elected officials more.
Spicer appeared on Fox Business Network's "Mornings with Maria" and was asked about Hanks' insistence that he would not attend the screening of his new movie "The Post" if it were held at the White House.
"I think that at some point it's become now cool to be like, 'I'm not gonna go do this,'" said Spicer, alluding to people who have declined to attend White House functions now that President Donald Trump is in office.
"I will tell you this right now: if President Obama called me today and said, 'hey come mow my lawn,' I'd do it because I think that there's something that we all should come together as Americans and want to support our leaders, our elected officials, Republican [or] Democrat."
Spicer suggested that Hanks and others who disagree with Trump on things should take advantage of the opportunity to spend some time with the president.
"I think the idea that it's become cool to say, 'I won't even show up to see the president of the United States,' is a sad commentary on where we are," Spicer said. "I think that for people like Tom Hanks, who I think is a great film producer and director — he should take the lead and maybe say, 'you know what? I want to go talk to the president about these important issues that were brought up in my movie in 'The Post.'"
The film tells the story of how The Washington Post came to the decision to publish the controversial Pentagon Papers in 1971. The documents exposed a massive government cover-up about the Vietnam War.
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