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Former White House spokesman Sean Spicer speaks to attendees at Shale Insight 2017 at the convention center.
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What's Sean Spicer's most nagging regret? A run in with a stranger.

Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette

What's Sean Spicer's most nagging regret? A run in with a stranger.

Sean Spicer is afraid that personal attacks will keep people from entering public service.

“We’re starting to attack people because we don’t like them,” the former White House press secretary said on Thursday.

To be clear, Mr. Spicer wasn’t talking about his former boss.

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“That’s where I think we’re starting to lose sight of what’s important in this country. We’ve got to recognize that good people should be coming into public service and not feel as though they or their family should be dragged through some kind of social media attack because people don’t like who they are or who the person they’re gonna serve [is].”

In one of his first appearances since resigning from a tumultuous tenure as press secretary for President Donald Trump, Mr. Spicer gave a keynote address at the Marcellus Shale Coalition’s annual conference at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown.

Since entering the speaking circuit a few weeks ago, Mr. Spicer has used his engagements to assure audiences that he has full confidence in the administration he left, as well as to tout its accomplishments and throw in some frequently asked questions.

What was it like during that first press conference when Mr. Spicer stood before a stunned White House press corps and announced that the new president had just enjoyed the largest inauguration crowd in history?

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“We weren’t ready in the way that we should have been,” he said.

It was a Saturday. He was in a hotel room with his family. The president called and asked him to come in, and Mr. Spicer — grabbing the first suit at hand — rushed into the office expecting to sort through e-mails.

“One of lessons learned is make sure you get ready to go with the facts — every appropriate fact,” he clarified, “or don’t answer the question.”

How did he react when comedian Melissa McCarthy took over his persona on Saturday Night Live in one of the most notorious parodies in recent history?

“It was the confluence of about 18 million emotions going on at once,” he said.

On balancing his responsibilities speaking for the president while working with the media?

“I think we did a really, really good job,” he said. Most of what the press corp wanted was access, he said, and they got it.

Regrets?

“I’m unbelievably self critical,” Mr. Spicer said. “There’s nothing that I do that I don’t look back on and try to figure out what I did right and what I did wrong.”

But the one regret that plagues him, he said, is not asking for clarification when a stranger on the street told him, “You almost look like Sean Spicer.”

“What part of me doesn’t look like Sean Spicer,” he’s wondered ever since.

Those who were expecting Mr. Spicer’s speaking tour to be raw or even contrite would have been disappointed.

“You’re not speaking for yourself,” he said of his responsibilities at the White House. “Your job is ... to articulate what they want to get out. You can say, ‘This is what I think we should say.’ But if they say, ‘No, we’re gonna to say it this way’ then that’s your job. And if you don’t like it, then you quit.”

The choice of Mr. Spicer to close the Shale Insight conference was consistent with the organization’s prior events. Last year, it was then candidate Donald Trump who enjoyed a warm reception there.

Mr. Spicer’s talk was titled “Making America Energy Independent.” It was supposed “to address industry concerns and approaches to minimizing sensationalized public protests reported by the media and, globally, with regards to preventing foreign oil producing countries and cartels from holding America hostage.”

He encouraged the oil and gas industry to organize, push past the bureaucrats in agencies and take the message straight to those in the administration. They are eager to listen and help, he assured.

Expect more fuel development on federal lands, he said, and more energy exports.

“While I may not be in the White House anymore, I remain unbelievably confident that this industry has a huge friend in the Oval Office and throughout this administration,” he said.

Anya Litvak: 412-263-1455 or alitvak@post-gazette.com.

First Published: September 28, 2017, 6:59 p.m.

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Former White House spokesman Sean Spicer speaks to attendees at Shale Insight 2017 at the convention center.  (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Former White House spokesman Sean Spicer speaks to attendees at Shale Insight 2017 at the convention center.  (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Former White House spokesman Sean Spicer speaks to attendees at Shale Insight 2017 at the convention center.  (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Former White House spokesman Sean Spicer speaks to attendees at Shale Insight 2017 at the convention center.  (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette
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