Trump inauguration: New White House press secretary accuses press of faking low attendance

New White House press secretary Sean Spicer accused the press on Saturday of using misrepresentative photographs to lessen the people’s enthusiasm for the US president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. Spicer said the attempts are shameful and wrong.

In his debut as press secretary, Spicer said the media has faked low attendance “to minimise the enormous support” to Trump. He insisted that the new president actually has “the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.”

The New York Times estimated that the latest presidential inauguration had about one-third the size of Barack Obama’s. It is believed to be a record turnout of 1.8 million.

But prior to the briefing of Spicer on Saturday, Trump himself said he has delivered an inauguration address to a “massive field of people … packed.” He estimated the number of attendees to be between 1 million and 1.5 million people.

In an interview on NBC's “Meet the Press” with host Chuck Todd, Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway has commented about Spicer’s claims, saying he only provided alternative facts. “Don’t be so overly dramatic about it, Chuck,” she said.

She has also maintained that presidents should not be ultimately judged by the number of people who have attended their inauguration, but by their accomplishments. “On this matter of crowd size, I think it is a symbol of the unfair and incomplete treatment this president receives,” Conway said.

Conway has also shared that Trump has already done “meaningful things.” These, she said, include signing an executive order to limit ObamaCare.

Meanwhile, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus has stressed that the administration of Trump won’t stand by while the media tries to “de-legitimize” the president during an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” Priebus has warned that they will not only sit around and let it happen.