Harvard student: Every Spicer speech was kept off-the-record

All of Sean Spicer’s speeches as a visiting fellow at Harvard University’s school of government have been off-the-record, according to a master’s student at the school. 

“Not a single word Sean Spicer spoke during his Visiting Fellowship at Harvard was on the record, nor could a single word could be heard without an explicit invite,” wrote Daniel Drabik in The Havard Crimson of the former White House press secretary’s 11 speaking engagements at the school. 

Spicer’s events have consisted of “closed door forums with select faculty and fellows” and “invite-only meals with selected groups of students,” he said. 

Drabik also hit at the university in his piece for defending Spicer’s fellowship and allowing him to hold off-the-record meetings while simultaneously uninviting Chelsea Manning from a visiting fellowship at the school.

The school announced in September that Manning’s invitation to be a visiting fellow at the school would be withdrawn. The school had faced intense backlash over the decision to invite Manning, a military whistleblower and transgender activist. 

Drabik recalled that in one classroom session Spicer “followed the same playbook as his Press Secretary tenure: Dodge hard questions, make a few false statements, attack the media, claim that Trump is treated unfairly, etc.”

Spicer infamously held a number of off-camera White House press briefings, banning reporters from taking video or audio recordings.

“What lessons does this teach future leaders and policymakers about accountability and transparency?” Drabik asked. “Let’s put an end to secret Harvard fellowships.”