'Pathetic. Embarrassing': Morning Joe host dubs Trump press secretary's first briefing a 'hostage video'
"Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski admonished President Donald Trump's press secretary over his conduct during his first official press conference on Saturday.
In several tweets posted on Saturday, Brzezinski asked if Sean Spicer was "kidding" over his criticism of the media for some outlets' coverage of the crowd size at Trump's inauguration and former President Barack Obama's inaugurations in 2009 and 2013.
"Sean Spicer's first hostage video...that was pathetic. Embarrassing. Bad. Just bad," Brzezinski wrote.
During Saturday's press conference, Spicer dubiously boasted about the crowd size at Friday's inauguration, and claimed that media outlets intentionally attempted to "minimize the enormous support on the National Mall" by posting photographs of Trump's inauguration compared to Obama's in 2009.
"This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in-person and around the globe," Spicer asserted.
Though there are no official tallies of the crowd sizes at the inaugurations, Washington's transit system claimed that 193,000 trips were taken by 11 a.m. Friday, compared to 317,000 at the same time during Obama's 2013 inauguration, and 513,000 during the 2009 inauguration.
The "Morning Joe" co-host joined a number of top media figures who criticized Spicer's press conference: