After Trump tweeted that his fired FBI director should hope such recordings do not come to light, Spicer pointedly refused to rule out the existence of such tapes.
"The president has nothing further to add on that," Spicer said numerous times in answer to rapid-fire questions.
In an angry early morning tweet storm, Trump warned that "James Comey better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!"
Trump's bareknuckle comments immediately fueled fresh comparisons between his administration and that of disgraced president Richard Nixon, who famously recorded his conversations -- a fact that sped his downfall during the Watergate scandal.