Politics

Conway: Trump spokesman gave ‘alternative facts’

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Social Links for Mark Moore
Published Jan. 22, 2017
Updated Jan. 22, 2017, 1:28 p.m. ET

President Donald Trump’s top adviser on Sunday defended the administration’s contention that the inauguration drew the biggest crowds of all time, saying the White House spokesman was simply offering “alternative facts” to make his case.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer on Saturday insisted during his first press briefing that Trump’s inauguration crowd was larger than any president’s before.
“This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period,” he told the White House press corps.
On “Meet the Press” Sunday, host Chuck Todd and Kellyanne Conway engaged in a combative back-and-forth over “false facts” and crowd size at the inauguration.

Todd kicked off the interview by asking her why Spicer would hold a press briefing about the inaugural crowd size.
“Curious why President Trump chose yesterday to send out his press secretary to essentially litigate a provable falsehood when it comes to a small and petty thing like inaugural crowd size. I guess my question to you is: Why do that”?
“The president did many things that were meaningful yesterday,” Conway said, adding that Trump signed an executive order to limit ObamaCare.
She continued: “I don’t think ultimately presidents are judged by crowd size at their inaugurations. They are judged by their accomplishments,” she told Todd. “On this matter of crowd size, I think it is a symbol of the unfair and incomplete treatment this president receives.”
Todd continued to grill her on the question.
“Why did the president send out his press secretary. … Why put him out there for the very first time in front of that podium to utter a provable falsehood? It’s a small thing, but the first time he confronts the public, it’s a falsehood?” Todd asked as the tension between the two ratcheted up.
“If you’re going to keep referring to our press secretary in those types of terms, I think we’re going to have to rethink our relationship here,” she said and then referenced the mistaken White House pool report that a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. had been removed from the Oval Office.
“That’s just flat out false,” she said.
Todd said that doesn’t excuse Spicer from making false comments.
“Why did the president ask the White House press secretary to come out in front of the podium for the first time and utter a falsehood? Why did he do that? It undermines the credibility of the entire White House press office from day one,” Todd said.
“Don’t be so overly dramatic about it, Chuck,” Conway replied. “Our press secretary Sean Spicer gave alternative facts.”
“Alternative facts are not facts, they’re falsehoods,” he said.
“Do you think it’s a fact or not that millions of people have lost their plans or health insurance and doctors under President Obama? Do you think it’s a fact that everything we heard from these women yesterday happened on the watch of Barack Obama? He was president for eight years; Donald Trump has been here for about eight hours,” Conway said.
White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus defended Conway during an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” saying the Trump administration will not stand by while the media tries to “de-legitimize” the president.
“There’s an obsession by the media to de-legitimize the president, and we are not going to sit around and let it happen. We are going to fight back tooth and nail every day – and twice on Sunday,” Preibus said.