After the nation watched White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer lash out at April Ryan for reportedly shaking her head during a briefing Tuesday, the veteran reporter responded to the incident in a CNN interview Wednesday morning, saying she felt “disbelief” at the finger wagging.
Ryan, who serves as the White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, shared her reasoning for the gesture on CNN’s New Day.
“I was just asking a question. Trying to get an answer and I found myself trying to defend my myself … it was a simple question. It was a legitimate question,” Ryan said.
During the briefing, Spicer told Ryan to stop “shaking her head” after he refused to directly answer a question about the Russian probe and the White House’s image.
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Spicer has since responded to the incident, calling Ryan a “tough woman” during an interview on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show:
“To suggest that somehow because of her gender or race she’d be treated differently, I think, is frankly demeaning to her,” Spicer said. “She’s a tough woman that fights every day to get out there for her publication and her audience to get the questions that she wants answered, and I respect that.”