WATCH: Trump press secretary Sean Spicer answered questions from the White House press corps for the first time Monday. On Saturday, Spicer did not take reporters' questions and made false claims about Inauguration Day attendance in an on-camera statement at the White House.After today's briefing, the NewsHour's Lisa Desjardins and Daniel Bush provided context to Spicer's comments.Learn more: http://to.pbs.org/2kkhoC3
Posted by PBS NewsHour on Monday, January 23, 2017
White House press secretary Sean Spicer held his first official briefing with the press Monday.
On Saturday, Spicer made false claims about inauguration attendance in an on-camera statement at the White House, and criticized the media for the way outlets compared the crowd size of President Donald Trump’s inauguration to that of former President Barack Obama.
He did not take any questions from reporters Saturday; on Monday, he fielded more than an hour of questions from the press.
Spicer said “sometimes we may disagree” about facts and said he wanted to have a “healthy relationship” with the White House press corps. He announced the addition of four “skype” seats for press located outside of the metro Washington region.
He also covered a number of other topics, from immigration to Russia, with whom he says the Trump administration is willing to partner to combat the Islamic State group. President Donald Trump will visit the Department of Defense Friday to review the anti-Islamic State policy.
Watch PBS Newshour’s politics team put the briefing in context on Facebook.
READ MORE: President Donald Trump begins first week in office with outreach
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
