A very perplexing thing happened during bumbling espionage enthusiast Sean Spicer's White House press briefing on Monday. April Ryan, whom you may remember as the black reporter asked by Donald Trump if any members of the Congressional Black Caucus were "friends of yours," brought up last week's horrifying murder of 66-year-old Timothy Caughman by a self-professed white supremacist who told police that he had traveled to New York City for the specific purpose of killing black men. It starts around the 54:00 mark.

RYAN: Hate crimes are on the rise. What does this White House say about this obvious apparent hate crime?

SPICER: I’m not going to, I mean—you yelled at the attorney general a specific case, if I'm not correct [sic]?

Spicer was referring to a moment earlier in the press conference, when Attorney General Jeff Sessions had announced that any "sanctuary cities" that don't end their noncooperation policies will be barred from receiving federal Department of Justice funds. As Sessions was wrapping up, Ryan asked, "What about the Eric Garner case, and the white supremacist that killed the black man in New York? Is that a hate crime, sir?" You'll never believe this, but the attorney general ignored the question and left the podium. Anyway, Spicer continued:

I just want to be very clear that I am not going to reference any specific case before the DOJ right now. I will say that the president has recognized that we need to bring the country together. He wants to unite this country. He wants to bring people together. He had a very long conversation with respect to race in itself, which I think is somewhat, if I’m not correct, [sic] in your question.

If Sean Spicer were around a century ago: "Yes, April, the president's official comment on yesterday's Titanic disaster that killed thousands of people is, 'Who among us can fathom the deepest mysteries of the ocean, for it is a complex and wondrous place, and also it's neat that boats float even though they're made of metal.' Moving on." His stern admonition that he would not comment on "any specific case" was a little odd, though, given that in the same press conference, Sessions had discussed the following at length: