Sean Spicer was asked to condemn Islamophobia. He spoke about terrorism instead

Being Donald Trump’s press secretary is a difficult task, especially given the US president’s expressed acrimony towards the media.

Sean Spicer had a rocky start to his career: twice he tweeted a set of numbers and letters that many speculated was a password of some sort.

Rumours of incompetence continue to shadow his press conferences: on a number of occasions Spicer defended the president’s immigration ban by referencing a fictional terror attack.

At the White House press conference on Tuesday, he attacked the Anne Frank Centre for calling the president a 'band-aid on the cancer of Anti-Semitism'.

At the same conference, a journalist asked him about anti-Muslim sentiment within the administration.

Has the president been forceful about that particular issue?

Spicer’s response was willfully missing something crucial. Can you spot what it was?

I think that the president in terms of his desire to combat radical Islamic terrorism...He understands that people want to express their peaceful position and have every right in our constitution but if you come here and want to express views that seek to do our country or our people harm he’s going to fight it aggressively whether it’s domestic acts that are going on here or attempts through people abroad to come into this country so there’s a big difference between preventing attacks and making sure that we keep this country safe so that there is no loss of life and allowing people to express themselves in accordance with the first amendment.

Those are two very very different…different things.

That’s right: he didn’t actually condemn Islamophobia. Not even a little.

The number of anti-Muslim hate groups has almost tripled in 2016, and it has been partially attributed to Donald Trump’s presidency, according to a report by the Southern Poverty Law Centre.

His silence on the matter did not go unnoticed.

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