Reports have been circulating for awhile that Spicey Time may be coming to a close, as the Trump administration searches for somebody slightly less volatile to lie to the public. If it does happen, Spicer will have held office as the White House Press Secretary for the sixth shortest time in history.
Spicer’s time on camera has been limited recently, which Steve Bannon says is because “he got fat.” If this is the kind of abuse leveled at Spicer in public, you can imagine the metaphorical sack of doorknobs he’s beaten with in private. Even if Spicer’s not about to be replaced, there’s a limit to how much the man can take. The Washington Post reports that if Spicer leaves his job as we’re all anticipating he will, he’ll join a small number of Press Secretaries who left early under extreme circumstances. That’s right: THIS IS NOT NORMAL.
The five men who held their positions for less time than Spicer all departed due to special circumstances, including getting shot in the head. That would be James Brady, who served for 69 days before being shot during an assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan. He lived, but never returned to his post.
Roger Tubby, who served 33 days, and Jake Siewert, who served for 11 days, were fill-ins under Harry Truman and Bill Clinton. Jonathan Daniels only made it 19 days before Franklin Roosevelt died in office. Jerald terHorst resigned after 30 days when President Ford pardoned Nixon for his crimes. Aside from these rare outliers, most make it to about 500 days, though generally it’s in the thousands, according to a graph produced by the White House Transition Project. Stephen T. Early was under Roosevelt for a record 4,403 before the ill-timed Daniels took over.
As of today, Spicey has made is 152 days. Under Nixon, Ronald Ziegler made it to over 2,000, if you’re curious.