In a speech to the CIA on Saturday afternoon, Donald Trump said that the pictures of the paltry crowds at his inauguration were faked by the media. It’s especially disturbing, because the photos of the inauguration released by the Federal government were amongst the ones showing the thin crowd.
Trump said that after his Inaugural speech one of the networks (he didn’t name which one) was showing a photo of an empty field, and saying that his inauguration drew about 250,000 people. He said that was a lie, and that by his estimation there were a million and a half people at the event.
“I made a speech, I looked out, the field — it looked like a million, a million and a half people,” Trump continued. “They showed a field where there was practically nobody standing there… and it said we drew 250,000 people. Now, that’s not bad, but it’s a lie.”
Trump could not name any stats or facts to back his claims. Probably because there are none. There is, however, information from the Joint Congressional Committee for Inaugural Ceremonies that says about 250,000 tickets were distributed for the inauguration.
Trump followed up the stunning lie by saying he thinks the media is “gonna pay a price” for their actions.
He also said that God decided not to rain on his speech, and that he’s “with” the CIA, “One-thousand-percent.” This, of course, coming after Trump dismissing and attacking the CIA for many months over their conclusions involving the Russian hacking of the election.
Even more disturbing, he seemingly hinted at bringing torture back: “We haven’t used the abilities we’ve got. We’ve been restrained.”
You can watch the entire speech here:
