White House press secretary Sean Spicer had a rather awkward run-in with a woman at an Apple store in Washington, D.C. over the weekend.
33-year-old Indian-American Shree Chauhan was at the store to see about getting the screen on her phone fixed. All of a sudden, she looked up and saw White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer standing in line in front of her.
Chauhan immediately turned on her camera and snapped into cit-jo mode as she bombarded Spicer with questions.
“How does it feel to work for a fascist?” “Have you committed treason too, just like the president?” “What can you tell me about Russia?”
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Then she posted the interaction to social media:
Asking @PressSec questions in Apple Store since he doesn't like the press. https://t.co/l493z2gG4x
— Shree ?????? (@shreec) March 11, 2017
Throughout the exchange, Spicer maintained an awkward smile as he tried to rush out of there. For the most part he remained silent, except to make one comment: “Such a great country that allows you to be here.”
The remark had many scratching their heads. But to Chauhan, it was clear what the press secretary meant.
“So I watched the video over and over again,” she writes in an op-ed for Medium. “And his words were clear… ‘Such a great country that allows you to be here.’ That is racism and it is an implied threat.”
“I am still stunned by the boldness of having my citizenship threatened on camera.”
Whether or not Spicer’s comment was tinged with racism is perhaps open to interpretation. But the racism felt by his sympathizers on Twitter is pretty clear:
I'm embarrassed to share the title "woman" with nasty women like #shreechauhan Liberals have lost all decency. #Shree is a Nazi bully.
— I am Joy (@simkajoy) March 13, 2017
#ShreeChauhan ill mannered, rude, useless, uninformed, emotionally unbalanced. Feel free to leave if you cant deal with traditional america.
— Richard Sattora (@grandparicky66) March 13, 2017
Leave it to a worthless B*TCH like #ShreeChauhan @shreec to harass someone, (she's a mouthy punk) and then pull the "racism" card.
— Von LaFosse (@VonLaFosse) March 13, 2017
After verbally assaulting @seanspicer was she removed from your store @Apple? USVisa? #apple #seanspicer #shreechauhan pic.twitter.com/IG2jNnEQnw
— Kathy Murphy (@katmur23) March 13, 2017
In addition to all this, Spicer apologists have dug up and published Chauhan’s personal information online, including her email address and the address to her office. They’ve also begun contacting her employer demanding she be fired from her job.
“I have spent enough time with online to encounter rabid Trump supporters,” Chauhan writes. “Many of these folks see my brown skin and question my citizenship. They question whether I am here legally. They tell me to leave the country. They have told me to go back to where I came from. To which my snarky reply is often, ‘Go back where? New York?'”
Related: Kellyanne Conway says Obama may have spied on Trump through his microwave at Trump Tower
DCguy
Oh NO!! The special little snowflake Trump Trolls will come in here sobbing that nobody should ever speak to him and he is a victim of assault.
Of course being part of an administration that attacks your civil rights, wants to do away with lgbts rights laws, and a party that is pushing laws allowing doctors to lie to pregnant women about the state of their babies is ok and NOT an attack according to the Trump Trolls.
Remember, in the world of the Log Cabin trolls, BEING a bigot is ok, but Pointing out that somebody is a bigot is EVIL and will make them cry!!
Darrellx
no fan of spicey, but…the woman is rude…not helping the cause at all…
DCguy
So being a part of an administration that wants to take people’s civil rights away and make them 2nd class citizens isn’t “rude”?
Which cause is helped by smiling at Spicer and making him think everything is neato peachy keen?
MacAdvisor
She was rude, but Spicer is the spokesperson for Trump. He was in public and she had every right to ask. He also had every right to ignore her, which he did, for the most part. He was stupid enough to say something and that something is troubling. Nevertheless, if one is going to be the public face of an administration, one should expect people will speak to you about it.
She may not have helped, “The Cause,” but she didn’t do it, whatever The Cause is, any. I wish the White House press corps was as persistent.
QueerGal58
What cause are you referring to? My cause is to survive until one of two things happens; one, Trump is removed from office (I do not care how); two, four years transpires and he IS NOT reelected!
natekerchel
Have to disagree Darrellx – is it already forgotten how the White House Usurper described mexicans? Now that was rude. How he talked about women – that was rude. How he talked about judges and members of the media – that was rude. I believe in fighting fire with fire. We on the left are far too polite and it gains us nothing. Spicer is a racist sexist homophobic nasty man – he is in the top 5 of legitimate political targets. The implied threat in his smiling retort shows that nastiness and racist assumption that the person is an immigrant. If you work for, and support, a vile personage like trump then you invite this sort of abrasive questioning. No sympathy whatsoever for this creep. I also think that giving him a nickname gives him a humanity he does not deserve. Its time we toughened up and stop worrying about how rude we might sound – it never bothers our opponents.
Stilinski26
Yup Its going to be another win for Trump in 2020 you Americans deserve it.
scotshot
I’d be worrying about 2028 midterms which are shaping up to be a bloodbath – for republicans.
ashke_benavidez
That woman was a rude bitch and lucky I wasn’t him, she’d be taking video of her colon……
MacAdvisor
Oh, I so, so wish Spicer had done something like that. Nothing like watching the press secretary for the White House be hauled away for battery. Would have made my day.
Mo Bro
I believe he would’ve been within his legal rights to respond by head-butting her and sticking bubble gum in her hair.
QueerGal58
His legal right to physically hurt someone who used their voice to question them? That makes little sense.
natekerchel
He would not be within any legal right to assault someone however rude he thinks she was. It’s no surprise that the usual suspects all recommend violence being perpetrated on this lady – they are following the example of their crazy leader. Freedom of speech and expression are rights guaranteed by the Constitution – a right some make use of to spread hate and violence even on this site. I would never dream of stopping your hate-filled, violent rants – they provide the rope that hangs you, metaphorically of course. And describing a woman as a bitch is monumentally rude ASHKE_BENAVIDEZ. The hypocrisy from you trump people is staggering.
BitterOldQueen
This is so why we can’t have nice things. I loathe trump and all things and people trumpish, his ghastly trumpy policies and his horribly trumpy family. But this woman was not “in cit-jo mode,” she was just being terrible to a terrible person in public. I don’t condemn her, because yes he’s terrible, but I see no reason to celebrate her childish behavior, which did not illuminate or illustrate anything, which made no particular point and was just generally dreadful. A pox on all of ’em.
scotshot
P*rverts, Qu*ers, Fa*gots, H*mos, L*mp wrist, etc etc etc. How many times have you been called many of these names or countless others? How many have been Assaulted, Murdered, Fired, Kicked out of your home?
And you call her a terrible person? Besides bitter it appears you aren’t very bright. Please excuse my terrible language Aunt Nellie.
Mo Bro
Well well well, will you looky there, it’s another typical, loudmouthed, crazy liberal who becomes completely unhinged in the face of a differing political opinion and puts their sociopathy on display for all the world to see.
Spicer’s right. She IS lucky to be here. We all are.
scotshot
And here’s the same tired “straight man” spouting off the usual drivel. Did you get off on this?
Mo Bro
@scotshot:
Tired straight man? Say whaaaat? Dammit, man, make sense!
natekerchel
At it again Mo Bro – when will you learn that trying to defend the indefensible is pointless – its indefensible. Spicer is a creep of the first order and deserves people being nasty to him every 15 minutes for the rest of his miserable hate filled life. And I say that in a loving caring way. Some people on here are rounding on the woman for being ‘rude’ towards one of the most repulsive bigots in the whole of the USA. Really? That’s ridiculous and sad. The scumbag brought it on himself with his support for unapologetic discrimination as well as the politics of greed and selfishness – not to mention the 24 million who will lose health coverage under his master’s ‘healthcare plan’. So let’s decide who is the real bad guy here – and it’s not the lady.
dwes09
Clearly, you are a straight white man who gets off on acting the homosexual “negro”. Her outrage is well founded, based on the administrations actions thus far and on Spicer’s lame assumptions regarding where she was born and her legal status.
Were you a person of color you might understand that, rather than exhibit your usual high school grade smugness and verbal style. As for sociopaths, that term more correctly describes folks like Spicer and you who clearly have neither empathy nor regard for those other than yourselves.
Sociopathy is not properly ascribed to those who feel outrage for social injustice. But of course all you right wingers make your own meanings up for words anyway. That whole alternative fact thing…
QueerGal58
Okay, she was rude. Why do people think ALL liberals are rude? I suspect this is because the brainwashing, done by the Trump team, was successful!
Trying to have someone fired for something they said, while not working, is utterly ridiculous and a typical move from the creeps in the current White House crazies.
Personally, I am sick of the lying and hatred coming out of Spicer’s mouth!
Kieran
She should have been arrested for harassing customers. Ungrateful bitch.
natekerchel
Ungrateful for what exactly? What do you know about this woman? Or are you just spouting the right wing agenda of attacking those who dare to question your repugnant policies and speeches? What we do know is that Spicer supports a racist, homophobic, sexist, tax-dodging ‘President’ and applauds his hate-filled speeches. The Minister for Propaganda is very lucky that more people don’t accost him. Again – you complain she was rude – but your post is vileness itself. Definitely tinged with racism and sexism.
ivanw222
This is the resident’s press secretary! He can’t even handle questions from a non journalist who got in his face? He pretty much ran from an impromptu interview instead of facing it head on and answering her questions, and/or deflecting her comments. Here was a perfect opportunity to address, and defend President Trumps positions and decisions, instead he ran as if he finds them indefensible.
Jack Meoff
WOW the Trump trolls are out in force on this thread. She wasn’t even that rude and I applaud her for putting him on the spot. More Americans should be questioning this governments motives and ideals because they don’t seem to have a cohesive message. They are dealing in misdirection and lies and that is very unstable and unsettling so yes people should be questioning them.
Roan
I don’t think she was rude, but I wished she would have paused the rapid fire enough for him to make a clear response. He wanted to respond. He can’t help himself. He just needed more rope.
andrewl
Actually I believe that Apple should fire her. I am not a Trump supporter in any way shape or form. However, she was at work and has no right to call anyone out. This is no different than someone behind a shop counter attacking a customer based on race or sexuality. This woman is not someone to praise as a hero of anti Trump protests.
Goforit
Andrewl, try reading the article again. The woman was not an employee of Apple. She was another customer exercising her first amendment right of free speech.
natekerchel
To attack the lady equates to being a defender of the creep Spicer. I am not fooled by the ‘I am not a trump supporter’ line. He is at work when he spews hatred all over the place. In fact he is paid tax payers money to do it! He is the one who should be sacked. If he cant cope with one woman asking him difficult and real questions what is he doing in that job? She is the brave one for not letting any fear she might have had get in the way of trying to hold the Minister of Propaganda to account.
GayEGO
Based on the free speech right, the woman does have a right to express her feelings as an American. Spicer is an employee of Trump who started this whole nasty mess during the GOP primaries and as a professional, he should have known how to respond to the woman. Maybe Spicer is too stressed out to act like a governmental employee.
dwes09
It is most interesting to me that because of her brown skin Spicer comments that this is “such a great country that ALLOWS her to be here”. She is here by birth EXACTLY as Spicer is. His racist assumptions (only white people are real Americans, the descendants of slaves slightly less so, all those other folks need to acknowledge the largess of White Christians) are on full display.
natekerchel
Precisely dwes09- and that is the real issue in this story. The menacing arrogance and racism is on full display in that single comment. Not only is he a racist creep, he is also a bully.
Jack Meoff
I would love it if had made those comments to an Native American Indian. Who would be the more real American in that scenario ;o)