Donald Trump became the President on Friday. That should have been good enough. But it wasn’t. In a speech to the CIA on Friday, Trump said the media lied about the size of his crowd. He claimed that from where he was standing, it looked like “a million and a half people.” But some news networks say it was only 250,000.
It got worse on Saturday, when he sent his press secretary Sean Spicer to attack the media and their “false” reporting. He had no numbers to back it up, but he said, “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.”
He also said the white ground coverings they used on the National Mall made the crowd look thinner, and that they’d never been used before. Oh, and that increased security measures made it harder for people to get in, which the Secret Service denies. Not surprisingly, #SpicerFacts and #SpicerSays are a meme now.
The problem is that pictures show WAY more people watched BARACK OBAMA’s first inauguration in 2009. And there are plenty of numbers that back that up.
For instance, on Friday, about 570,000 people took trips on the D.C. Metro, as opposed to 1.1 million in 2009.
Also, Nielsen says 31 million people watched Trump’s inauguration, which is less than the first inaugurations of both Obama and RONALD REAGAN. Reagan holds the record with 42 million and Obama had 38 million. But to be fair, this doesn’t count online numbers. There aren’t any actual numbers on crowd size yet, but Obama’s 2009 inauguration attracted 1.8 million. About a million showed up for him in 2013.
Then Kellyanne Conway talked to Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” yesterday, and made it even worse. She dodged questions about whether Sean Spicer’s claims were true, and took it to another level.
She said, “You’re saying it’s a falsehood. Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts.” That’s right, ALTERNATIVE FACTS! And ANOTHER meme is born.
