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Twitter Hilariously Responds To Trump Advisor Kellyanne Conway’s ‘Alternative Facts’ Comment

By Darien Cavanaugh
Published on: 08:41 PST, Jan 22, 2017

At a press conference on Saturday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer disputed claims that attendance to President Donald Trump’s election ceremonies had been particularly low. He suggested that the media had been intentionally framing images of the inauguration to make it look as if there were not many people in attendance.

“Photographs of the inaugural proceedings were intentionally framed in a way, in one particular Tweet, to minimize the enormous support that had gathered on the National Mall,” Spicer said in his first official press conference as White House press secretary. “That was the largest audience to witness an inauguration, period. Both in person and around the globe.”

His comments quickly drew skepticism and criticism from media, politicians, celebrities and social media users.

“Spicer offered a few ‘facts’ to disprove media reports of low turnout, but many of them are misleading or inaccurate,” Linda Qiu wrote in an article for PolitiFact. “His overall assertion that Trump’s inaugural drew the ‘largest audience’ ever is flat-out wrong.”

Qui pointed out that, despite Spicer’s claims, floor coverings had been used before on the National Mall to protect the grass, and they were still in place the next day when the Women’s March filled the Mall. Spicer had argued that the floor coverings highlighted areas not filled with people during the inauguration.

Spicer also said that fencing and magnetometers had not been used at previous inauguration events and prevented people from entering the National Mall as quickly as in the past. However, Qui cited sources that said those mechanisms had been in place during previous events, and that they were not even used where Spicer suggested they were used during the inauguration.

On Sunday, Kellyanne Conway, a senior advisor to Trump, went on NBC‘s Meet the Press. Host Chuck Todd grilled Conway about Spicer’s comments, calling them falsehoods.

“You’re saying it’s a falsehood and Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that,” Conway said in defense of Spicer.

She then turned the discussion to criticisms of Barack Obama’s presidency.

The “alternative facts” line caught the ear of many listeners, and people soon began posting about it on social media. The hashtag #alternativefacts began trending on Twitter, with tens of thousands of tweets, likes and retweets.

Some people focused on the questions of the inauguration numbers, Spicer’s reliability and Conway’s responses.

Others quickly employed the hashtag to include broader political commentary.

The hashtag soon spread to other topics as well, with everything from people’s lunch decisions to their tax returns becoming a target for “alternative facts.”

Some people got deep with the political commentary.

And even Merriam-Webster chimed in.

[Featured image by Mark Wilson/Getty Images]

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