Sean Spicer said that Donald Trump’s administration should be allowed to issue corrections when it makes mistakes just like the media does.
(Photo: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)
When Donald Trump’s press secretary was asked about the inaccurate statements he made from the briefing room regarding crowd sizes at the inauguration, Spicer defended himself by saying it was not his intention to lie.
“It wasn’t like we made it up out of thin air,” Spicer said during his first official briefing Monday. “At the time, the information was provided by the inaugural committee and came from outside agency.”
“We have to be honest with the American people,” he continued. “There are certain things we may not know but our intention is never to lie to you. You’re [the media is] in the same boat. There are times when you publish something and have to issue a correction. We should be afforded the same opportunity.” (RELATED: Sean Spicer Rips The Media For Lying About Crowd Sizes At Trump’s Inauguration)
“Again, I think, when you look net and net, we are going to do our best every time that we can. I’m going to tell you things as fast as I know them. It’s a two-way street. There are many mistakes the media makes all the time. I don’t think that’s always intention. We all try to do our best job and do it with a degree of integrity.”
(Photo: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)
Spicer compared the situation to the Time reporter who mistakenly said the Martin Luther King, Jr. bust had been removed from the Oval Office. The reporter, Zeke Miller, quickly issued a correction.
“When things like that happen, when [John] Lewis says he’s never missed an inauguration and we find out actually he did, you have to correct the record. You’re talking about integrity. Over and over again there is an attempt to go after president and say, ‘Well that can’t be true.’ There is a rush to judgment every time.”
Spicer stood by his remark that the crowd size was the “largest to ever witness an inauguration, period.”
“It was the total largest audience in person and around the globe.”
On Saturday, Spicer accused the media of lying about the size at Trump’s inauguration, but quoted inaccurate numbers about riders on the D.C. metro system.
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