It’s not on the official public press release page yet, however several media are reporting a call between President Trump and President Erdogan.

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Taken in the abstract it’s disconcerting for President Trump to be congratulating Erdogan on the controversial referendum. However, I had a sense this was going to happen because Press Secretary Sean Spicer really FUBAR’d a diplomatic protocol earlier in the day when questioned about yesterday’s election result in Turkey.

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The brief, albeit painfully poorly worded response from Sean Spicer comes at 14:50 of the video below [Prompted – just hit play]. Spicer unintentionally pushed President Trump into an subtle and uncomfortable diplomatic position with his response:

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[@15:00] …”My understanding is there’s an international commission that is reviewing this and issues a report in ten to twelve days, and so we’ll wait and let them do their job – there were international monitors throughout Turkey.”

… “I think at this point, we’d rather not get ahead of that report and start to make decisions without knowing, there were observers there as there routinely are, and I’d rather wait and see”…

…”Again, I’m not going to, they have every right to have elections, and their people participate in that before we start getting into their governing system, let this commission get through its work.”

By referencing an international commission reviewing the validity of the election, Press Secretary Spicer appeared to be calling the election results into question.

The optic of the U.S. President questioning the validity of a democratic election within a strategically needed NATO country could end up being a major media issue. Micro FUBAR.

Shortly after Spicers’ remarks the phone call to Erdogan appears to have taken place.

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Spicey Cat says: “Um, Sorry”

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