April Ryan on Trump’s Learning Curve: ‘Really — It’s Long, It’s Bent, It’s Twisted’
American Urban Radio Networks reporter April Ryan joined Stephen Colbert on the Late Show to discuss the life of a White House reporter in the age of President Donald Trump.
Colbert kicked off the interview asking whether there is “a particular responsibility that [reporters] at the White House every day have?”
“Get information, accurate information, facts for the American public,” Ryan responded. “It’s not about us, it’s about the American public. It’s about the First Amendment. It’s about freedom of the press.
“Its not about us — it’s about informing the masses,” she added.
Ryan, a 20-year veteran of the White House press corps, has recently been noted for her showings in the White House briefing room, and ability to provoke the ire of press secretary Sean Spicer.
On the topic of Spicer, Ryan told Colbert she felt “so bad for Sean.”
“Even though he did what he did to me, he didn’t get to see the Pope,” Ryan said, referencing reports that Spicer, a devout catholic, was excluded from the Trump’s trip to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis.
Ryan said she was considering Tweeting at the pontiff to try and arrange a private meeting between Spicer and the Pope, adding that “it looks like [Spicer] may not be there when we come back, who knows.”
The AURN reporter described the White House and its communications team as “manic,” suffering from the administration’s insistence on throwing “away the script.”
She also took a swipe at Trump: “It’s always a learning curve for a new president, but when this president comes in the curve is really — it’s long, it’s bent, it’s twisted.”
Colbert asked Ryan about the contentious dynamic between the press and the Trump administration, but Ryan laid the blame for tensions on the White House
“They are warring on us — we are trying to do a job,” she said. “What does it look like for the press to be fighting with the president of the US? The American public loses out.”
Watch the interview above, via CBS.
[image via screengrab]
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