(CNN) White House press secretary Sean Spicer started the week dogged by rumors that he was about to be demoted or fired. He ended it almost speechless, incapable or unwilling to answer even the most basic questions about President Donald Trump and the administration's policies.

Take Spicer's response in Friday's briefing as to whether or not Trump believes, as he tweeted in 2012 , that climate change is a hoax created to aid China and hobble US manufacturing.

"I have not had an opportunity to have that discussion," Spicer said, despite the fact that he was asked the same question earlier in the week and, in the intervening time, Trump had formalized his decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accords -- making the US one of only three countries worldwide to do so.

Asked later in the briefing whether he would commit to asking Trump whether he still believed climate change is a hoax, Spicer offered only: "If I can, I will." Which in political-speak is the equivalent of saying: "Absolutely not."

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When Spicer was asked to comment on the ongoing Russia probe, he said this: "I cannot, and as I've mentioned the other day that we're focused on the President's agenda and going forward all questions on these matters will be referred to outside counsel Marc Kasowitz." Asked several other questions tied to the Russia investigations, Spicer repeated, verbatim -- with glances down at the sheet of paper on the podium where it was written -- the line about all matters being referred to Trump's personal lawyer.

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