Sean Spicer defends lag in Michael Flynn's dismissal, takes aim at Sally Yates

— -- White House press secretary Sean Spicer defended President Donald Trump's handling of the dismissal of his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and took aim at then-acting Attorney General Sally Yates in the process.

"The decision that we made was the right one. The president made a decision. He stands by it," Spicer said.

This defense came amid multiple questions over why there was an 18-day gap between the time Yates first notified the White House counsel that Flynn could have been compromised over conflicting accounts of his conversations with Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak.

Spicer said that after Feb. 2, when the White House first viewed the evidence and materials, which were flagged by Yates on Jan. 26, there were meetings and discussions that took place leading up to the request for Flynn's resignation on Feb. 13.

He described the period between the White House's seeing the materials and Flynn's being fired as a time dedicated to "an element of due process," during which administration officials reviewed "the situation."

On Feb. 2, "that's when the full sort of review began," Spicer said.

He took a shot at Yates for her alleged political biases, which he said could have influenced the Trump administration's willingness to act on the information.

Spicer described Yates, who was an appointee of Barack Obama's, as "someone who is not exactly a supporter of the president's agenda."

"The president acted decisively. The process worked," Spicer said.