Official Briefing: Sean Spicer Press Secretary vs. Media ‘We’re going to hold the press accountable’ — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00you guys for coming i know our fish
2. 0:01first official press briefing is going
3. 0:03to be on monday but i wanted to give you
4. 0:04a few updates on the president's
5. 0:05activities but before i get to the news
6. 0:08of the day i think i'd like to discuss a
7. 0:10little bit of the coverage of the past
8. 0:1124 hours yesterday at a time when our
9. 0:14nation in the world was watching the
10. 0:16peaceful transition of power and as the
11. 0:18president said the transition and the
12. 0:20balance of power from Washington to the
13. 0:22citizens of the United States remember
14. 0:24some members of the media were engaged
15. 0:26in deliberately false reporting for all
16. 0:28the talk about the proper use of Twitter
17. 0:30two instances yesterday stand out one
18. 0:34was a particularly egregious example in
19. 0:36which a reporter falsely tweeted out
20. 0:38that the bust of Martin Luther King jr.
21. 0:41had been removed from the oval office
22. 0:44after was pointed out that this was just
23. 0:46plain wrong the reporter casually
24. 0:48reported and tweeted out and tried to
25. 0:51claim that a secret service must agent
26. 0:53what they've just been standing in front
27. 0:54of it this was irresponsible and
28. 0:56reckless secondly photographs of the
29. 1:01inaugural proceedings were intentionally
30. 1:02framed in a way in one particular tweet
31. 1:05to minimize the enormous support that
32. 1:07had gathered on the National Mall this
33. 1:10was the first time in our nation's
34. 1:11history that floor coverings have been
35. 1:13used to protect the grass in the mall
36. 1:14that had the effect of highlighting any
37. 1:17areas where people were not standing
38. 1:18while in years past the grass eliminated
39. 1:21this visual this is also the first time
40. 1:24that fencing and magnetometers went as
41. 1:26far back on the wall preventing hundreds
42. 1:28of thousands of people from being able
43. 1:30to access them all as quickly as they
44. 1:32had in inaugurations past in accurate
45. 1:35numbers involving crowd size were also
46. 1:37tweeted no one had numbers because the
47. 1:41National Park Service which controls the
48. 1:43National Mall does not put any out by
49. 1:46the way this applies to any attempts to
50. 1:48try to count the number of protesters
51. 1:50today in the same fashion we do know a
52. 1:52few things so let's go through the facts
53. 1:54we know that from the platform where the
54. 1:57president was sworn into fourth Street
55. 1:58holds about 250,000 people from fourth
56. 2:01Street to the media tent is about
57. 2:03another 220,000 and from the media tent
58. 2:06to the Washington Monument another
59. 2:07another 250,000 people all of this space
60. 2:11was full when the president took
61. 2:13of office we know that 420,000 people
62. 2:16use the DC metro public transit
63. 2:19yesterday which is actually compares to
64. 2:22317,000 that used it for President
65. 2:24Obama's last inaugural this was the
66. 2:27largest audience to ever witness an
67. 2:29inauguration period both in person and
68. 2:32around the globe even the New York Times
69. 2:34printed a frittata photograph showing
70. 2:37the that a misrepresentation of the
71. 2:40crowd in the original tweet in their
72. 2:42paper which showed the full extent of
73. 2:43the support depth in crowd and intensity
74. 2:46that existed these attempts to lessen
75. 2:49the enthusiasm of the inauguration are
76. 2:51shameful and wrong the president was
77. 2:54also at the Federals as you know the
78. 2:55president was at the Central
79. 2:56Intelligence Agency today and greeted by
80. 2:58a raucous overflow crowd of some 400
81. 3:01plus CIA employees there were over a
82. 3:04thousand requests to attend prompting
83. 3:06the President to note that I'll have to
84. 3:08come back to greet the rest the
85. 3:10employees were ecstatic that he's the
86. 3:11new commander-in-chief and he delivered
87. 3:13them in a powerful an important message
88. 3:16he told them he has their back and they
89. 3:20were grateful for that they gave him a
90. 3:22five minute standing ovation at the end
91. 3:24in a display of their patriotism and
92. 3:26their enthusiasm for his presidency I'd
93. 3:29also note that it's a shame that the CIA
94. 3:31didn't have a CIA director to be with
95. 3:34him today when he visited because the
96. 3:36Democrats have chosen Senate Democrats
97. 3:38are stalling denomination of Mike Pompeo
98. 3:41and playing politics with national
99. 3:43security that's what you guys should be
100. 3:45writing and covering that this instead
101. 3:47of sowing division about tweets and and
102. 3:51false narratives the president is
103. 3:53committed to unifying our country and
104. 3:55that was the focus of his inaugural
105. 3:56address this kind of dishonesty in the
106. 3:59media the challenging that bringing
107. 4:01about our nation together is making it
108. 4:02more difficult there's been a lot of
109. 4:04talk in the media about the
110. 4:05responsibility to hold Donald Trump
111. 4:07accountable and I'm here to tell you
112. 4:08that it goes two ways we're going to
113. 4:10hold the press accountable as well the
114. 4:12American people deserve and his law
115. 4:15deserve better and as long as he serves
116. 4:17as the messenger for this incredible
117. 4:18movement he will take his message
118. 4:20directly to the American people where
119. 4:22his focus will always be and with that a
120. 4:25few other updates from the day
121. 4:27the President had a constructive
122. 4:28conversation with Prime Minister Trudeau
123. 4:30of Canada about strengthening the
124. 4:32relationship between our two nations
125. 4:34they also discussed setting up
126. 4:36additional meetings in the days to come
127. 4:38which we will follow up on he also spoke
128. 4:41to Prime Minister Netanyahu of Mexico
129. 4:45and talked about a visit on trade
130. 4:48immigration and security that will occur
131. 4:50on the 31st the president has will
132. 4:53welcome his first foreign leader this
133. 4:55thursday when the united kingdom's
134. 4:58Theresa May will come to Washington on
135. 5:01Friday on tomorrow the president will
136. 5:04oversee his assistance to the president
137. 5:07being sworn in he will then the staff
138. 5:10will then have an ethics briefing and B
139. 5:12I briefing on the proper use and
140. 5:14handling of classified information
141. 5:16further updates as far as what he will
142. 5:19be 0 and then in the evening he will
143. 5:21have a reception for law enforcement and
144. 5:23first responders that helped support the
145. 5:26inauguration thank you guys for being
146. 5:28here tonight I will see on monday