Story highlights Spicer: Best not to have "too many cooks in the kitchen"

Priebus denies any tension between himself and Scaramucci

Washington (CNN) Sean Spicer said Friday night that President Donald Trump did not want him to resign as White House press secretary but "understood" that it was in the best interest of the administration.

Speaking to Fox News' Sean Hannity, Spicer said that while he had previously considered resigning, it was his decision alone to leave his post as press secretary and give it over to a new communications team under Anthony Scaramucci, who was named the new White House communications director, and deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who will be taking over the press secretary position. The White House announced Spicer's resignation earlier on Friday.

"He's been very gracious throughout this process," Spicer said of Trump. "My decision was to recommend to the President that I give Anthony and Sarah a clean slate to start from, so that they can talk about the President's agenda and help move it forward. And he, after some back and forth, understood that the offer that I was making was something that was in the best interest of the administration."

Spicer added that he believed it was in the best interest of the White House to not have "too many cooks in the kitchen."

Spicer's resignation caps off a rollercoaster six-month tenure as the chief spokesman for an administration besieged by a steady drumbeat of controversy. His decision to leave came after Scaramucci, a New York financier and former Trump campaign fundraiser, accepted the new job as communications director, a move Spicer adamantly opposed, multiple sources said. His resignation came in spite of Trump's request that he remain in this position, a White House official and top GOP advisers said.

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