White House press secretary’s falsehoods were ‘alternative facts’, says Trump aide Kellyanne Conway

A top adviser to US President Donald Trump said Sunday that his press secretary, Sean Spicer, had offered “alternative facts” in a statement the day before from the White House briefing room in which he contested reports on the size of Trump’s inauguration audience.

“Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts,” Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway said on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday.

Her remark drew a riposte from the program’s host, Chuck Todd. “Look, alternative facts are not facts. They’re falsehoods.”

Conway’s characterisation of Spicer’s statement and its falsehoods exacerbated a growing rift between Trump’s White House and the news organisations that cover it, less than two days into his administration. On Saturday, his first full day in office, Trump and Spicer both made easily disproved claims, adding fuel to his opponents’ charges that the president is a habitual liar.

During a speech at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, Trump accused the media - whom he termed “among the most dishonest human beings on Earth” - of inventing a “feud” between him and the US intelligence community. In fact, Trump has fought a running public battle with intelligence community leaders for months over their conclusion that the Russian government intervened in the presidential campaign, going so far as to suggest that the CIA was the source of leaks against him.