Donald Trump giving his remarks at the RNC | Photo: YouTube/Fox Business
At the 2016 Republican National Convention, Donald Trump, in his nominee acceptance speech, said: ‘As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology.’ Former press secretary Sean Spicer now reveals that was a farce.
Spicer’s new book, The Briefing: Politics, The Press, and The President, which was published on Tuesday (24 July), reveals his version of the story.
According to Spicer, Trump’s team was targeting anyone who wasn’t going to vote for him as the party’s nomination. So-called ‘Never Trumpers’ signed petition promising just this.
‘[Trump campaign chairman Paul] Manafort and his lieutenants went one by one down the list of people who had signed the petition and persuaded them to remove their signatures,’ he writes in the book.
‘How Manafort and company did this was a scene out of 1950s politics — alternating between carrot and stick and sometimes bat, even, at one point, conveniently making the convention’s parliamentarian unavailable to keep the opposition from formally submitting their petition.’
One of those petition signers was Washington, D.C., delegate Robert Sinners.
A false promise
In Spicer’s book, he alleges that Sinners told Manafort and his team that he wanted Trump to support gay rights.
Senior Trump communications advisor Jason Miller responded to Sinners. Spicer describes the promise: ‘Jason assured Sinners that Trump would be the most “inclusive” candidate the Republican Party ever had.’
After that, Sinners signed a new document, scrubbing his name from the petition.
Trump then proceeded to make his comment at the RNC. LGBTI people have experienced a much different reality since he took office, though.
Instead, states introduced 125 anti-LGBTI bills within a single year of Trump’s presidency. At the federal level, there are ongoing complications of the trans military ban, healthcare issues, and more.
Spicer was the former press secretary for Trump. He resigned in July 2017 and Sarah Huckabee Sanders succeeded him.
GSN reached out to The White House for comment.
