President Donald Trump's inauguration was either the largest watched in history, according to his press secretary Sean Spicer, or the second-most watched, according to a story tweeted by Trump's special adviser Kellyanne Conway.
Spicer claimed Saturday that Trump had "the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration — period — both in person and around the globe."
Conway, who defended Spicer's claim by saying he presented "alternative facts," tweeted a link to an Entertainment Weekly article with the headline "Trump Inauguration Ratings Second Biggest in 36 Years."
According to the article, Nielsen found that 30.6 million Americans watched the inauguration live on TV, below the inaugurations of Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon.
Online streams are not included in Nielsen ratings, but CNN's stream pulled in 16.9 million viewers on Friday, well below the 25 million who streamed Obama's in 2009.
According to Politico, aerial photos of former President Barack Obama's inauguration show "significantly more people than Friday's ceremony.
The Los Angeles Times investigated some of Spicer's statements about the inauguration and found several inconsistencies.
Spicer claimed that white floor covering were used for the first time, and that this made attendance seem sparse compared to previous inaugurations. However, CNN's Ashley Killough tweeted a photo of floor coverings being used at Obama's 2013 inauguration.
Spicer also said magnetometers prevented "hundreds of thousands of people" from getting to the National Mall, but the U.S. Secret Service told CNN no magnetometers were used on the Mall.
Finally, Spicer claimed more people used the D.C. Metro on Friday than did on Obama's final inauguration. According to the Metro's official twitter, only half as many trips were made on Trump's inauguration day compared to Obama's.
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