But it was Sean Spicer, his Press Secretary, who in very his first "press conference" (more like a monolog) flat out lied to the press about the size of the crowd. He said, among other things, the following:
- The photos were carefully "framed" in a way that somehow distorted the real size of the crowd (the shot was from a camera in the Washington Monument, looking directly towards the Capitol, and was compared to a shot from the same camera in 2009 from the same angle).
- That for the first time in history, ground cover was put in the grass so it appeared that there were fewer people standing on it (the ground cover was also used for Obama in 2013. The reason it looked like fewer people were standing on it was because fewer people were standing on it - there were large patches that were totally empty).
- That the crowd stretched back to the Washington Monument (there are pictures of reporters standing at the edge of the crowd on 10th St - The Washington Monument is five blocks from there).
- That for the first time magnetometers and fences were used for security, which restricted the ability of people to enter the area (Both the Secret Service and the National Park Service later said unequivocally that magnetometers were not used).
- That 420,000 used the subway on Friday, compared to 317,000 for Obama in 2013 (the 317,000 was reported as of 11 AM on Inauguration Day 2013; for Trump, it was 193,000 as of the same time. Full day totals were 782,000 fro Obama, 57o,557 for Trump).
And then this morning, KellyAnne Conway attempted to defend Spicer by first deflecting the question of why he would do that, and then by saying he was providing "alternative facts". As Chuck Todd correctly pointed out, there is no such thing as an "alternative fact" - those would be called falsehoods. Todd also pointed out that this was a prepared statement, not off-the-cuff remarks - Spicer could have easily done a Goggle search to see if he had his facts right.
Several days ago, a veteran White House reporter cautioned Spicer that every incoming Press Secretary gets to tell only one lie and that he should choose his lie wisely. He chose to use it on Day One. Spicer has totally blown his credibility with the press - who's going to believe a Press Secretary who starts his tenure with a list of what are easily proven lies? We have 4 more years of "alternative facts" to look forward to.
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