White House press secretary Sean Spicer was apparently out shopping from some new tech when he was confronted by a woman in an Apple store in Washington on Saturday.
Shree Chauhan live-streamed her encounter with Spicer as she asked him questions about U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia.
“How does it feel to work for a fascist?” Chauhan asked Spicer.
“We have a great country,” the press secretary mutters.
“Have you helped with the Russia stuff?” the woman asks. “Are you a criminal as well? Have you committed treason, too, just like the president?”
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“Thank you,” a smiling Spicer says in response to the series of questions.
“What can you tell me about Russia?” Chauhan asks.
“Such a great country that allows you to be here,” the press secretary says. It’s unclear what Spicer was referring to. However, in a blog post, Chauhan, an Indian-American, suggests that his comment was racially motivated.
“When I confronted Mr. Spicer, I wanted to speak truth to power. It wasn’t until hours later that it was revealed to me that Mr. Spicer had said, ‘Such a great country that allows you to be here,’ to me,” Chauhan wrote. “Unlike this administration, I do not believe in “alternative facts”. I believe in facts. I do not believe in accusing someone of this level of racism, if in fact it was not.”
Chauhan said in the blog post that she watched the video “over and over again” and others watch the watch it.
“And his words were clear,” Chauhan wrote. “That is racism and it is an implied threat.”
The woman admits that she wasn’t “polite” but “when does being impolite mean that I should be thrown out of the United States of America? The country I was born in, the country I was raised in, the country I love despite its flaws.”
Chauhan’s encounter with Trump’s spokesperson has been viewed over 500,000 time as of Monday morning.
During Spicer’s daily media briefing on Monday afternoon, the press secretary addressed the encounter saying he interacts with “individuals all day long.”
“99 per cent of them are pleasant even with people who may not agree with our philosophy or programs or whatever,” Spicer said. “But it’s a free country and the beauty of it is that people can act how they want, no matter how that is interpreted and as long as they stay on the right side of the First Amendment, we’re good.”
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