White House press secretary Sean Spicer slams media — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:05hi everyone I'm DeMarco Morgan we want
3. 0:07to play for you right now a press
4. 0:09briefing held by the new White House
5. 0:11press secretary Sean Spicer he did not
6. 0:13take questions and said he attacked the
7. 0:15media for what he says is quote
8. 0:17deliberately false reporting about the
9. 0:19Trump administration and particularly
10. 0:21about the size of the crowd at president
11. 0:24Trump's inauguration it was very unusual
12. 0:26let's listen in
13. 0:29good evening thanks for coming I know
14. 0:32our fish first official press briefing
15. 0:34is gonna be on Monday but I wanted to
16. 0:35give you a few updates on the
17. 0:36president's activities but before I get
18. 0:39to the news of the day I think I'd like
19. 0:41to discuss a little bit of the coverage
20. 0:42of the past 24 hours yesterday at a time
21. 0:45when our nation in the world was
22. 0:47watching the peaceful transition of
23. 0:48power and as the president said the
24. 0:51transition and the balance of power from
25. 0:52Washington's to the citizens of the
26. 0:54United States remember some members of
27. 0:56the media were engaged in deliberately
28. 0:58false reporting for all the talk about
29. 1:00the proper use of Twitter to instances
30. 1:03yesterday stand out one was a
31. 1:06particularly egregious example in which
32. 1:08a reporter falsely tweeted out that the
33. 1:11bust of Martin Luther King jr. had been
34. 1:13removed from the Oval Office after was
35. 1:16pointed out that this was just plain
36. 1:18wrong
37. 1:18the reporter casually reported and
38. 1:21tweeted out and tried to claim that a
39. 1:23secret service must agent must have just
40. 1:24been standing in front of it this was
41. 1:27irresponsible and reckless secondly
42. 1:31photographs of the inaugural proceedings
43. 1:33were intentionally framed in a way in
44. 1:35one particular tweet to minimize the
45. 1:38enormous support that had gathered on
46. 1:39the National Mall this was the first
47. 1:42time in our nation's history that floor
48. 1:44coverings have been used to protect the
49. 1:45grass in the mall that had the effect of
50. 1:48highlighting any areas where people were
51. 1:49not standing while in years past the
52. 1:52grass eliminated this visual this was
53. 1:54also the first time that fencing and
54. 1:56magnetometers when is far back on the
55. 1:59wall preventing hundreds of thousands of
56. 2:00people from being able to access them
57. 2:03all as quickly if they had in
58. 2:04inaugurations past inaccurate numbers
59. 2:07involving crowd size were also tweeted
60. 2:09no one had numbers because the National
61. 2:13Gork service which controls the National
62. 2:15Mall does not put any out by the way
63. 2:18this applies to any attempts to try to
64. 2:20count the number of protesters today in
65. 2:22the same fashion we do know a few things
66. 2:24so let's go through the facts we know
67. 2:26that from the platform where the
68. 2:28president was sworn in to fourth Street
69. 2:30holds about 250,000 people from fourth
70. 2:33Street to the media tent is about
71. 2:34another two hundred and twenty thousand
72. 2:36and from the media tent to the
73. 2:38Washington Monument another another 250
74. 2:40thousand people all of this space was
75. 2:43full when the president took the oath of
76. 2:45office we know that four hundred and
77. 2:47twenty thousand people used the DC Metro
78. 2:50public transit yesterday which is
79. 2:51actually compares to three hundred and
80. 2:53seventeen thousand that used it for
81. 2:55President Obama's last inaugural this
82. 2:58was the largest audience to ever witness
83. 3:00an inauguration period both in person
84. 3:03and around the globe even the New York
85. 3:06Times printed a photographer de Graaff
86. 3:08showing the that a misrepresentation of
87. 3:11the crowd in the original tweet in their
88. 3:13paper which showed the full extent of
89. 3:15the support depth and crowd and
90. 3:17intensity that existed these attempts to
91. 3:20lessen the enthusiasm of the
92. 3:21inauguration are shameful and wrong the
93. 3:25president was also at the center of as
94. 3:26you know the president was at the
95. 3:27Central Intelligence Agency today and
96. 3:29greeted by a raucous overflow crowd of
97. 3:32some 400 plus CIA employees there were
98. 3:35over a thousand requests to attend
99. 3:37prompting the President to note that
100. 3:39we'll have to come back to greet the
101. 3:40rest the employees were ecstatic that
102. 3:43he's the new commander-in-chief and he
103. 3:45delivered them in a powerful an
104. 3:46important message he told them he has
105. 3:50their back and they were grateful for
106. 3:52that they gave him a five-minute
107. 3:54standing ovation at the end in a display
108. 3:56of their patriotism and their enthusiasm
109. 3:58for his presidency I'd also note that
110. 4:02it's a shame that the CIA didn't have a
111. 4:03CIA director to be with him today when
112. 4:06he visited because the Democrats have
113. 4:08chosen Senate Democrats are stalling the
114. 4:11nomination of Mike Pompeo and playing
115. 4:13politics with national security that's
116. 4:16what you guys should be writing and
117. 4:17covering that this instead of sewing
118. 4:19division about tweets and and false
119. 4:23narratives the president is committed to
120. 4:25unifying our country and now
121. 4:27the focus of his inaugural address this
122. 4:29kind of dishonesty in the media the
123. 4:31challenging that bringing about our
124. 4:32nation together is making it more
125. 4:34difficult there's been a lot of talk in
126. 4:36the media about the responsibility to
127. 4:37hold Donald Trump accountable and I'm
128. 4:39here to tell you that it goes two ways
129. 4:41we're gonna hold the press accountable
130. 4:43as well the American people deserve and
131. 4:45his law deserve better and as long as he
132. 4:48serves as the messenger for this
133. 4:49incredible movement he will take his
134. 4:51message directly to the American people
135. 4:53where his focus will always be and with
136. 4:56that a few other updates from the day
137. 4:58the President had a constructive
138. 5:00conversation with Prime Minister Trudeau
139. 5:02of Canada about strengthening the
140. 5:04relationship between our two nations
141. 5:05they also discussed setting up
142. 5:08additional meetings in the days to come
143. 5:09which we will follow up on he also spoke
144. 5:13to Prime Minister Netanyahu of Mexico
145. 5:16and talked about a visit on trade
146. 5:19immigration and security that will occur
147. 5:22on the 31st
148. 5:23the president has will welcome his first
149. 5:26foreign leader this Thursday when the
150. 5:28United Kingdom's Teresa May will come to
151. 5:31Washington on Friday on tomorrow the
152. 5:35president will oversee his assistance to
153. 5:38the president being sworn in he will
154. 5:40then the staff will then have an ethics
155. 5:42briefing and b.i briefing on the proper
156. 5:45use and handling of classified
157. 5:46information further updates as far as
158. 5:50what he will do and then in the evening
159. 5:52he will have a reception for law
160. 5:53enforcement and first responders that
161. 5:56helped support the inauguration thank
162. 5:58you guys for being here tonight I will
163. 6:00see you on Monday
164. 6:03want to bring in major Garrett and just
165. 6:06get your thoughts and what spicer had to
166. 6:08say major well first of all des mark I
167. 6:10would not describe this as a White House
168. 6:12briefing because Sean's wife to the
169. 6:14White House press secretary took no
170. 6:16questions he did give a blistering
171. 6:19statement to the media saying it had
172. 6:21inaccurately reported the crowd sizes at
173. 6:23the inauguration yesterday and quibbled
174. 6:26with other reporting about the president
175. 6:29in the Oval Office yesterday
176. 6:30there wasn't a row Gnaeus report the the
177. 6:32bust of Martin Luther King jr. had been
178. 6:34removed from the Oval Office in fact it
179. 6:36had not been and Sean Spicer came out to
180. 6:38sort of give the media a
181. 6:40very stern warning talking about
182. 6:42accountability that this administration
183. 6:44and this president is gonna fire back at
184. 6:46reporters and the media if ever it comes
185. 6:49across what it considers to be
186. 6:50inaccurate or unfair reporting and then
187. 6:52he also talked about the president's
188. 6:54trip to the CIA glossing over entirely
189. 6:56the weeks of first of all doubts cast by
190. 7:00the president-elect about the
191. 7:03verifiability the credibility of a
192. 7:06consensus intelligence community
193. 7:08conclusion that Russian hacking was
194. 7:11involved in the 2016 election took weeks
195. 7:14upon weeks for president-elect Trump to
196. 7:16acknowledge that he finally did it as
197. 7:17one and only press conference before
198. 7:19becoming president the United States but
199. 7:21he said he went to the CIA got an
200. 7:23ecstatic reception there and that
201. 7:26reporter should understand that the CIA
202. 7:27is standing essentially in lockstep with
203. 7:30this president as they go forward it was
204. 7:33in every respect a stern almost tongue
205. 7:37lashing of reporters for the way in
206. 7:40reporters have generally dealt with this
207. 7:41administration and we are only into this
208. 7:44new administration for the second day a
209. 7:47couple of calendar items to keep in mind
210. 7:49British prime minister Theresa May will
211. 7:51be here late this coming week for a
212. 7:54visit at the White House with the
213. 7:56President and there was a couple of
214. 7:57interesting phone calls today with the
215. 7:59leader of Mexico Pena Nieto and the
216. 8:02Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau
217. 8:04those conversations very well could lead
218. 8:08to meetings and they will certainly lead
219. 8:09to conversations between the president
220. 8:11and his top advisers on one of president
221. 8:14Trump's top trade priorities which is
222. 8:18the rapid renegotiation of the north
223. 8:20american free trade agreement which
224. 8:21involves of course canada and mexico
225. 8:23marco major we know the president was
226. 8:26attending the National Day of Prayer
227. 8:28service earlier and just two miles away
228. 8:30from there yet hundreds thousands of
229. 8:33people who were there participating in
230. 8:35the women women's march there and across
231. 8:37the country and across the entire world
232. 8:39have we got a sense of his thoughts
233. 8:41about what took place today no none
234. 8:43whatsoever as a matter of fact as Shaun
235. 8:45spires who the White House press
236. 8:46secretary turned on his heels and walked
237. 8:48out of this
238. 8:49James s Brady briefing room we all
239. 8:52shouted questions at him about
240. 8:53the president reaction or the
241. 8:55administration's reaction to the women's
242. 8:58March today one thing that Sean Spicer
243. 9:00did try to assert is that nobody knows
244. 9:02how many people were here either for the
245. 9:04inauguration or for the women's March
246. 9:06because the National Park Service
247. 9:08doesn't provide numbers estimating crowd
248. 9:12sizes anymore it doesn't because there
249. 9:14are so many controversies have arisen
250. 9:16previously when the National Park
251. 9:17Service tried to do that and got
252. 9:20criticism for whatever estimate they put
253. 9:22forward so the National Park Service no
254. 9:24longer does that that is a actual
255. 9:26factual statement but that doesn't mean
256. 9:29people can't draw their own conclusions
257. 9:31from the photography of today's marches
258. 9:33not just in Washington but Chicago
259. 9:35Boston Los Angeles even in places
260. 9:37outside of the United States or the
261. 9:40photographs they saw for yesterday's
262. 9:42inaugural events people can draw their
263. 9:45own conclusions what Ron Spicer was
264. 9:47trying to suggest is that the media was
265. 9:49trying to drive those conclusions in a
266. 9:51certain direction to undermine in his
267. 9:53words shamelessly undermine the
268. 9:56enthusiasm
269. 9:57president Trump encountered on
270. 9:58inauguration day it is quite clear this
271. 10:00administration will make whatever
272. 10:02representations it wants to on its
273. 10:04impression and interpretation of the
274. 10:06news and then drive that right back in
275. 10:08the news media if it thinks it is either
276. 10:10being unfair or inflicting damage on the
277. 10:13image this White House wants to portray
278. 10:14that became clear if it wasn't already
279. 10:16and this statement from Sean Spicer just
280. 10:19a couple of months moments ago and major
281. 10:22I know you have to go but just a final
282. 10:23quick question for you you've covered
283. 10:25the White House you've covered
284. 10:25Washington for quite some time now have
285. 10:28you ever seen a press secretary this
286. 10:30early on handle a press conference a
287. 10:32briefing like this and it appears to
288. 10:35have been a very short briefing yes and
289. 10:38like I said it wasn't a briefing in any
290. 10:39traditional sense because in a briefing
291. 10:41there are statements from the White
292. 10:42House press secretary and then there's a
293. 10:43chance for questions sometimes it's on
294. 10:45camera commonly it is oftentimes it's
295. 10:47done
296. 10:48off camera either here or in the press
297. 10:50secretary's office I've done it all
298. 10:52those various ways no questions from
299. 10:55reporters today just an assertion of
300. 10:57this administration's interpretation of
301. 11:00facts I know we will have a briefing on
302. 11:03Monday where there will be a chance for
303. 11:04a give-and-take but to your
304. 11:07I've never seen anything like this where
305. 11:09it was so intense so harsh and so
306. 11:11passionate right off the beginning and
307. 11:13so much of it was about what the media
308. 11:15got wrong from the interpretation of
309. 11:17this White House and a declaration that
310. 11:19this antagonism is going to continue
311. 11:23because this president believes he is
312. 11:25duty-bound on behalf of this movement
313. 11:27that Sean Spicer talked about to speak
314. 11:29beyond the media and criticize it
315. 11:31whenever he feels he is justified in
316. 11:33doing so I heard our chief White House
317. 11:35correspondent major Garrett major as
318. 11:37always thank you so much for your
319. 11:38reporting there
320. 11:39sure all right folks we'll take a quick
321. 11:41break we'll be back with more here on
322. 11:43CBS n stay with us