"That's what you guys should be writing and covering," new White House press secretary Sean Spicer angrily lectured reporters on Saturday during his first remarks from the podium of the press briefing room [ Ссылка ]-
He was referring to the delay in Senate confirmation for President Donald Trump's pick to lead the CIA, Congressman Mike Pompeo, but the comment came after a long digression about how many people had shown up to watch Trump be sworn in as president.
"This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period," Spicer said, contradicting all available data.
Aerial photos have indicated that former president Barack Obama's first inauguration attracted a much larger crowd. Nielsen ratings show that Obama also had a bigger television audience.
Spicer said, without any evidence, that some photos were "intentionally framed" to downplay Trump's crowd.
He also expressed objections to specific Twitter posts from journalists. And he said, "we're going to hold the press accountable," partly by reaching the public through social networking sites.
Spicer, at times almost yelling while reading a prepared statement, took no questions. CNNMoney called his cell phone a few minutes later; he did not answer.
Some longtime White House correspondents were stunned by the tirade.
Glenn Thrush of The New York Times wrote on Twitter, "Jaw meet floor."
"I've run out of adjectives," wrote Chuck Todd, the moderator of NBC's "Meet the Press."
Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post said Spicer's assertion about "what you guys should be writing" was "chilling." [ Ссылка ]
Reactions were overwhelmingly negative, and not just from journalists.
Another sign attendance for Trump's inauguration could be lower: Metro ridership. Per WMATA, the Washington area transit authority, as of 11 am, 193,000 trips had been taken on the city's subway system. At the same hour in 2009, that number was 513,000, according to WMATA. The same time for the second Obama inauguration saw 317,000 riders, and President George W. Bush's second inauguration saw 197,000 riders by 11 am.
The Joint Congressional Committee for Inaugural Ceremonies distributed about 250,000 tickets for Trump's inauguration, per spokeswoman Laura Condeluci, including 1,600 on the platform and another 1,000 on the bleachers above. That number is on par with the distributed tickets for previous ceremonies. Most onlookers are beyond the ticketed point and watch the proceedings from the National Mall.
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