Spicer says Trump didn't want him to quit, but 'too many cooks' at White House

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Sean Spicer: President Trump didn't want me to go

A preview of Sean Hannity's interview with the outgoing White House press secretary

Outgoing White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Friday that President Trump did not want him to resign but Spicer felt there were “too many cooks in the kitchen” promoting the president’s message.

“I just thought it was in the best interest of our communications department, of our press organization, to not have too many cooks in the kitchen,” Spicer told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in an interview hours after he resigned from the White House on Friday.

Spicer quit in apparent protest after Trump tapped Anthony Scaramucci as White House communications director. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was promoted Friday to replace Spicer.

" ... my decision was to recommend to the president that I give Anthony and Sarah a clean slate to start from.”

— Sean Spicer

“He wanted to bring some new folks in to help rev up the communications operation, and after reflection, my decision was to recommend to the president that I give Anthony and Sarah a clean slate to start from,” Spicer told Hannity.

WATCH SPICER AND PRIEBUS WITH SEAN HANNITY AT 10 P.M. EST TONIGHT.

White House chief of staff Reince Priebus also spoke to Hannity about the shakeup, saying Spicer is leaving on good terms.

“Sean leaving doesn’t mean that Sean isn’t going to be out there supporting President Trump and it doesn’t mean that President Trump isn’t going to be out there supporting Sean Spicer,” Priebus said.

FILE - In this Jan. 13, 2017 file photo, Anthony Scaramucci, a senior adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, talks to reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York. CNN isn't commenting Monday, June 26, as to what led it to retract a story about a supposed investigation into a pre-inaugural meeting between an associate of Trump and the head of a Russian investment fund. The story posted Thursday on CNN's website said Senate investigators are looking into the meeting between Scaramucci and Kirill Dmitriev, whose Russian Direct Investment Fund guides investments by U.S. entities in Russia. Scaramucci, in the story, said he exchanged pleasantries in a restaurant with Dmitriev. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) (AP)

Priebus added, “I’ve seen how the world around the president works and it’s very healthy and he cares about his people.”

Spicer's departure marks the end of a rocky tenure in which the president's top spokesman at times struggled to keep pace with Trump's sometimes-chaotic leadership style -- and a swirl of controversies.

During the 2016 election cycle, Spicer was the chief strategist and communications director of the Republican National Committee. He later came to the White House along with Priebus, the former RNC chairman who is now Trump's chief of staff.

Spicer hasn’t had the rosiest relationship with the media since joining the White House. He’s clashed with reporters over “fake news” and said repeatedly the president was fed up with news reports that were “patently false.”

In February, he came under fire for barring reporters from several media outlets from participating in a scheduled press briefing.

His prickly relationship with the press was widely mocked on "Saturday Night Live" with Melissa McCarthy playing Spicer.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.