July 21st, 2017: the day the White House turned into a zoo; and my second day as an ABC News temporary intern. Surely one I will never forget.
It started out as a slow day. I was driving into work with my dad when he warned me that there might not be too much to do, and I should probably bring some things from home to occupy myself with. Even with this, I had a feeling he would be wrong. A slow day during the Trump Administration? That can't be possible. However, I nodded my head and prepared to be bored.
Arriving in D.C. at around 10 AM, we made a last minute decision to start our day on Pennsylvania Avenue rather than at the ABC D.C. bureau. Approaching the gates to the building itself, we noticed security had been tightened even more than usual, something I didn't even realize was possible. We shrugged it off and assumed someone must be visiting, but it was no big deal. I gave my name, ID, and social security number to the guard and received my press pass.
As I walked into the press briefing room, everything was quiet. Maybe my dad was right, maybe it is a slow day at the White House.
I spent my morning editing a piece on John McCain. As lunch approached, I texted my sister, who works at the Capitol, to meet me at Union Station. Before I was to leave for the metro, my dad and I decided to head up to the press office to see if Trump's 10 AM meeting had ended, and maybe I'd even get the chance to meet Sean Spicer. After religiously keeping up with Melissa McCarthy's SNL skits, seeing him in person had become a serious goal of mine.
On the way up, my dad heard that Anthony Scaramucci had just been confirmed as Trump's new communications director, a surprising move seeing as he had no experience in the business, and had also been quoted disapproving of Trump during his campaign.
As we entered the narrow hallway into the press office, we eyed Sarah Huckabee-Sanders and Sean Spicer headed into Spicer's office; they had just gotten out of the meeting - now was our chance!
Approaching the door, my dad caught the eye of Spicer. "So, Sean, is this really happen-" he was cut short by the violent door slam of Spicy himself, nearly an inch away from our faces. Jaws dropped, we stood there - stunned. "Did he really just do that?" someone in the office asked. Well, so much for an introduction, I thought.
Ok, we knew Spicer had a temper and was not a fan of my dad's tough questions, but they'd known each other for 15 years, and he had his daughter with him. A door slam? Something definitely just happened.
Late for my lunch, I walked to the metro station, still contemplating what I had just witnessed. Surely enough, by the time I reached Union Station my phone had blown up with notifications about Sean Spicer's resignation and the hire of Anthony Scaramucci as the new communications director.
As I raced back to the White House to make the 2 PM press conference with Sarah Huckabee-Sanders and Anthony Scaramucci, I thought about what this might mean. Spicer was the 5th shortest serving press secretary in history; three of the five had come in at the end of an administration and one had passed away.
Did he resign, or was he asked to? Everyone had their own Spicer story they chattered away about in the press briefing room. "And what does this mean for Melissa McCarthy?" we all thought as we reminisced over our favorite famous Sean moments.
On just my second day as a temporary ABC intern, I had witnessed history.
