Spicer often came to the lectern in the White House briefing room with an unapologetic defense of President Donald Trump ’s positions, even when those positions weren’t rooted in facts. He defended Trump’s baseless claim that millions voted illegally in the 2016 election and that then-President Barack Obama had ordered wiretapping of Trump Tower.

The day after Trump was inaugurated, Spicer called a sudden news conference to accuse White House reporters of “deliberately false reporting” about the crowd size on Inauguration Day. In April, he said Adolf Hitler, who gassed millions of Jews, didn’t use chemical weapons (he quickly apologized for that comment). In March, he told White House reporter April Ryan to stop shaking her head while she pressed him on how the administration could rehabilitate its image amid allegations of ties between Trump and Russia.