CNN’s Jake Tapper took a jab at Sean Spicer after the White House press secretary slammed The New York Times for incorrectly reporting his birth place.
"I imagine it must be really annoying when someone puts out false info about where you were born. Must really bother you!!,” Tapper tweeted, with a “cc” to President Obama's Twitter handle. His tweet is a reference to the conspiracy theory President Trump shared before entering the White House that Obama was not born in the United States.
I imagine it must be really annoying when someone puts out false info about where you were born. Must really bother you!!
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 25, 2017
cc @BarackObama https://t.co/BCQAWiEksB
In September, then-Republican presidential nominee Trump declared that he believed Obama was born in the US, after first questioning the president’s citizenship in 2011.
The Times earlier had published a report, “Trump Ruled the Tabloid Media. Washington is a Different Story,” that included a reference to Spicer being “New England born.”
For the record @nytimes @grynbaum can't even get where I was born right and failed to ask https://t.co/hIb3QFxK6P
— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) February 25, 2017
Glenn Thrush, a reporter for the Times, tweeted that he had reached out to the press secretary twice, with no response. Spicer says those emails did not include a question about his birth place.
I sent @seanspicer an email asking to discuss our story at 9:11 a.m. -- it was ignored. And a second at 11:24 a.m. Did u get them, Sean? https://t.co/5gX75qEDr2
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) February 25, 2017
You fail to mention that question was not contained in the email. More excuses for why you get it wrong https://t.co/J7AvPkMDOj
— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) February 25, 2017
The Times has since corrected the article.
"Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to Sean Spicer’s upbringing. He was New England bred, having been raised in Rhode Island; he was not “New England born.” (Mr. Spicer would not go on the record and give the correct facts pertaining to his birthplace.),” the correction reads.