During today’s White House daily press briefing, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer got into a contentious exchange with a reporter over President Donald Trump using the term “betrayal” in the announcement on acting Attorney General Sally Yates’ firing.

Following an exchange with MSNBC’s Kristen Welker over Trump calling his ‘extreme vetting’ executive order a “ban” after Spicer said it wasn’t a ban, the press sec was pressed on the White House statement and the language used in it.

Asked on whether that “kind of language has a chilling effect on the public statements” that the White House makes, Spicer said there was a “big difference” and said that Yates had a problem with enforcing something legal and compliant.

“Is it a betrayal,” the New York Times’ Glenn Thrush shot back. Spicer first scolded Thrush for interrupting and then proceeded to explain why it was right for the administration to remove Yates.

“Why use the word betrayal,” Thrush asked again, leading to Spicer to respond by stating that if an attorney general says she won’t execute an order then it “clearly is a betrayal.” When the NYT reporter yelled out for him to define the word, Spicer ended the back-and-forth.

“I’m not going to define the word,” he exclaimed.

Watch the clip above, via CNN.

[image via screengrab]

–

Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]