Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer has been accused of using a racial slur against a former black classmate.
Alex Lombard, the man in question, made the allegation against Spicer while the former Trump apparatchik was promoting his new memoir at a book signing in Middletown, Massachusetts on Friday.
According to the Associated Press, Spicer recognized Lombard and initially said, “Hey. Yeah. How are you?” after the one-time classmate made his presence known. Lombard and Spicer both attended the Portsmouth Abbey School in Rhode Island, a Catholic boarding academy, for high school during the 1980s.
During the book signing, Lombard first shouted at Spicer and reminded him of their history together at school, prompting the former Trump aide to make the brief acknowledgment. But Lombard wasn’t quite finished. He then accused Spicer of using the N-word and of trying to fight him during their time at the boarding school.
According to a video obtained by the Newport Daily News, Spicer did not immediately react to the accusation. In the video, Lombard says:
Sean, I was a day student at Abbey, too, with you. Don’t you remember? You don’t remember that you tried to fight me? But you called me a [n-word] first.
A publicist for Spicer later said their client was “taken aback” by Lombard’s “outrageous claim.”
In comments to the U.S. News and World Report, Regnery Publishing’s Lauren McCue says Spicer “can’t recall any incident” similar to the one alleged by Lombard. Regnery Publishing
[image via Alex Wong/Getty Images]
