Kellyanne Conway: WH Spokesman Gave ‘Alternative Facts’ on Inauguration Crowd

The press secretary also accused the media of inaccurately representing the crowds at Trump’s inauguration.

Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Trump, drew widespread criticism Sunday after she defended White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s press briefing on inauguration crowd sizes, saying the newly minted spokesman had given “alternative facts” to those cited in media reports.

A contentious back-and-forth started when Todd tried to interrupt.

There’s Sisyphus and his rock, Tantalus and his grapes, and NBC’s Chuck Todd attempting to get a straight answer out of Kellyanne Conway.

“I’m about things that are quantifiable and important”, she said as she sidestepped a question about something quantifiable and important. “We have no choice”, he said.

Insisting that his inauguration saw a turnout of 1.5 million people, Trump told the Central Intelligence Agency staff members: “I made a speech. People didn’t care”, she said. You saw that – packed.

“Now, that’s not bad. But it’s a lie”, Trump said. As of 11 a.m. ET, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority said it had recorded 193,000 trips, compared with the 513,000 trips taken up to that time on January 20, 2009.

“I think it’s very clear that he went out yesterday and told a fundamental untruth, he told a lie, and we shouldn’t beat around the bush about it”, he continued.

The New York Times said Mr Trump’s team had made “false claims” while CNN headed their article “White House press secretary attacks media for accurately reporting inauguration crowds”.

United States media outlets have hit back at claims by Donald Trump that reporters lied about the size of crowds at his inauguration.

“This was irresponsible and reckless”, Spicer said.

“‘The president is committed to unifying our country and that was the focus of his inaugural address.” he said, adding that the job of unifying the country is made more hard by “this kind of dishonest in the media”. He did not mention today’s worldwide women’s marches, and he did not take any questions from the assembled press. But aerial photographs comparing the turnout at President Obama’s inauguration and Trump’s show massively more people in attendance in 2009.

Ridership statistics show that people rode Washington’s underground Metro 571,000 times on Inauguration Day.