During a press conference that seemed to set the stage for Donald Trump‘s declaration of war on journalists, new White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer chose to focus on the debate over the crowd’s size at Friday’s inauguration.
Responding to reports that attendance was less than flattering, Spicer went into defense mode and managed to blurt out a litany of factual inaccuracies in the process.
“This was the first time in our nation’s history that floor coverings have been used to protect the grass on the [National] Mall,” Spicer said, claiming that the coverings may have obscured photos of the event, making the crowd look more sparse.
“That had the effect of highlighting any areas where people were not standing, while in years past the grass eliminated this visual. This was also the first time that fencing and magnetometers went as far back on the Mall, preventing hundreds of thousands of people from being able to access the Mall as quickly as they had in inaugurations past.”
But CNN’s Jim Acosta put a damper on that claim by simply contacting the Secret Service, who told him “no magnetometers were used on the National Mall for Trump’s inauguration.”
A USSS spokesperson tells us no magnetometers were used on the National Mall for Trump's inauguration.
— jim acosta (@Acosta) January 22, 2017
Acosta also tweeted a photo of workers laying down ground covers on the National Mall before Obama’s 2013 inauguration, effectively debunking Spicer’s claim that Trump’s inauguration was the first to have ground covers.
Pic of crews laying down white ground coverings at Obama inaugural in 2013 courtesy Getty images pic.twitter.com/rBDi8tdekZ
— jim acosta (@Acosta) January 22, 2017
Watch the press conference in the video below:
“This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration — period,” Trump White House press secretary claims https://t.co/ICcog0Ivxt
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) January 21, 2017
Featured image via screen grab. To follow Sky Palma, click here.
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