On the whole, Spicer came off as humble and self-aware but far from contrite—a triumph of image rehab without accountability. His success is more than a little infuriating when you remember—though of course he would prefer that you forgot—that the original controversy surrounding him wasn’t just partisan noise. The problem with a primetime dance competition giving Spicer a platform to burnish his reputation isn’t that he holds conservative views; it’s that he helped normalize practices, from his invention and repetition of obvious falsehoods to his antagonistic relationship with the press, that were previously beyond the pale for American politics. When Spicer appeared on the Emmys in 2017, just a few months after leaving the White House, former Obama Administration speechwriter David Litt called his comeback “an I’m-getting-away-with-it-right-now-because-I-let-the-American-people-down-and-you’re-applauding-me-for-it tour.” Two years later, that tour rolls on.

Bergeron needn’t have worried that the former press secretary would inject Republican talking points into DWTS or do anything else to jeopardize what the host described as a “joyful respite from our exhausting political climate.” (Personally, I would describe the experience of sitting through the two-hour broadcast as more “excruciating” than “joyful.”) The danger in casting Spicer isn’t that he could politicize the show; it’s that, with each episode, the show will help to de-politicize Spicer.