Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer hasn’t been able to get a permanent television-commentator role since leaving the Trump Administration in August. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t still get gigs soliciting his spot reactions. Last Saturday, Spicer turned up in Tysons Corner to judge a ballroom-dancing contest featuring participants from the famous-for-Washington and local-philanthropist sets.
The fourth-annual DC’s Dancing Stars Gala raised about $300,000 for area charities, according to its organizers. The evening also featured remarks by Martha-Ann Alito, wife of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who turned misty-eyed when she spoke about veterans’ service organizations.
As for the dance-judging, Spicer was, thankfully, joined by two others with more choreography knowledge: Julie Kent, who took over this year as artistic director of the Washington Ballet, and Chelsie Hightower, a trainer featured on Dancing With the Stars. Spicer’s own commentary, while less flustered than some of his White House press conferences, was mostly limited to repeating silly lines like “you stole some moves from me.” (Such a claim would seem to be at odds with reports last summer that Spicer had been approached to appear on Dancing With the Stars, to which a source told TMZ that the former press secretary was “not a good dancer.”)
Still, those who can’t dance, judge dancing. And even if many on the outside are uncomfortable with Spicer’s attempts to ingratiate himself back into the public’s embrace with stunts like his appearance at the Emmy Awards, among the dancing-gala set, he appeared to be quite welcome.
Benjamin Freed joined Washingtonian in August 2013 and covers politics, business, and media. He was previously the editor of DCist and has also written for Washington City Paper, the New York Times, the New Republic, Slate, and BuzzFeed. He lives in Adams Morgan.
