agreements and institutions. and joining me now is the counselor to president trump, kelly an conway. welcome to the white house north lawn, which will come a familiar place for you, i think, for the next few years. let me begin with this question. the presidency is about choices so i'm curious why president trump suppose to send out his press secretary to litigate a provable falsehood when it comes to a small and petty thing like inaugural crowd size. i guess my question to you is why do that? >> chuck, the president did many things yesterday and the day before that are very meaningful to america. he signed executive orders to stop obamacare and all of its problems. many people have -- millions of people have lost their insurance, their doctors, their plans. so that stops right now. he is going to replace it with something more free market. and on this matter of crowd size, for me the most

quantitifiable points of americas should be what just happens a few months ago that brought him here, the states he won, the 2,600 counties, the 200 countries that went to president trump and the fact that 29, 30 million women voted for donald trump for president. somebody should cover their voices as well. i'm about things that quantity fiable and important. i don't think presidents are judged by crowd sizes. we know that president obama and his accomplishments there is a lot of unfinished business there. on this matter of crowd size, i think it is a symbol for the unfair and incomplete treatment that this president often receives. i am very heartened to see kneel son came out with the ratings of 31 million people watching the inauguration. so we know people are also watching inauguration on different screens and in different modes.

and that there was -- for me there was a prediction of a downpour of rain i think that deferred many people from coming. but there are hundreds of thousands of people on the mall and many people enthused. >> you make a reasonable and rational case before why crowd sizes don't matter. then explain you did not answer the question. why did the president send out his press secretary, who's not just the spokesperson for donald trump. he could be -- he also serves as the spokesperson more all of america at times. he spokes for all of the country at times. why put him out there for the very first time in front of that podium to utter a provable falsehood. it is a small thing, but the first time he confronts the public it's a falsehood? >> chuck, i mean, if we're going to keep referring to our press secretary in those types of terms, i think we are going to have to rethink our relationship here. i want to have a great open relationship with our press. but look what happened the day

before, talking about falseho s falsehoods. we allowed the press to come into the oval office and witness president trump sign the executive orders. we allowed the press in. and what happens almost immediately? is falsehood is told about removing the bust of martin luther king jr. from the office. that's flat-out false. >> and it was corrected immediately. >> chuck, why was it said in the first place. >> i don't know? >> climb into the head of that reporter. >> no, excuse me. oh, no, no, no. that reporter was writing on bhof of the press pool. that falsehood that spread 3,000 times before it was corrected and it's still out there. >> but it does not excuse and you did not answer the question. >> i did answer your question. >> no you did not of why the president asked the white house press secretary to come out in

front of the podium for the first time and utter a falsehood? why did he do that? it undermines the credibility of the entire white house press office on day one. >> don't be so overly dramatic about it, chuck. you're saying it's a falsehood and sean spicer gave alternative facts to that. >> wait a minute. alternative facts? alternative facts? four of five facts he uttered were just not true. look, alternative facts are not facts. they're falsehoods. >> chuck, do you think it's a fact or not that millions of people have lost their plans or health insurance and their doctors under president obama? do you think it's a fact that everything we heard from this women yesterday happened on the watch of barack obama. donald trump has been here for eight hours. do you think it's a fakt that 16.1 million as i stand here before you today are in poverty along with their kids? do you think it's a fact we

spend billions of dollars on education only to have millions of kids still stuck in schools that fail them every day? these are the fact that i want the press core to cover and this is why i'm here at the white house, to change awful numbers like that. >> that is not what yesterday was about. >> yes, it is. >> so you have not answered the question. >> it is about what this presidency is going to be about. >> you sent the press secretary out there on the smallest, pettiest thing. >> look, i actually don't think that -- maybe this is me as a pollster, chuck, and you know data well. i don't think you can prove those numbers one way or the ov over. you can laugh at me all you want, but i'm very glad -- >> i'm not laughs. i'm befuddled. >> i think it's symbolic the way we're treated by the press. the way you laughed at me is symbolic. i'll just ignore it.

i'm really glad that nbc news is so thrilled to cover crowd control because we were mocked about talking about the significance of our historic rallies during the campaign. donald trump brought in huge crowds and on great days we were ignored and on most days we were mocked and those crowd did matter. >> of course they mattered. >> the likes of people haven't seen. >> what i don't understand is why he's litigating this. why stand in front of a memorial at the cia and talk about crowd sizes? >> you don't want to talk about the rest of what he said at the cia. first of all, his presence at the cia sent a great message to our brave men and women in the intelligence community. he thought he was going to witness a swearing in of his cia director, but you know why that didn't happen? because the united states senate won't confirm mike pom pay you

as director. ask him why -- ask him why donald trump as president has nominated 21 of the 21 cabinet positions only to have two, grand total of two confirmed while he takes office. so the democratic senate wants to hold up treasury, commerce, energy, education and the list goes on. we should have the respect and deference of having a cabinet seated to this peaceful transition of power occurs properly. but he went to the cia because lies have been told about his relationship and his respect for the intelligence community. so he went right there. we had over 1,000 requests to attend. >> can i ask you what the lies -- can i ask you to tell me what lies about the intelligence community were uttered about president trump's relationship with the intelligence community? >> that he doesn't respect them. do you think what outgoing cia director said yesterday in a statement using the vocabulary, the language he used about the

president of the united states, somehow improves our relationship with the intelligence community? it is irresponsible and totally unnecessary. >> let me ask you this. is this responsible in he called what ice disgraceful intelligence agencies say that something naz si germany would have done and done so. that was on january 11th. was it right to compare the intelligence community with nazi germany? >> what's not right is the day before you had people releasing a dossier full of junk and lies. why did they release it? because people knew that russianen hacking was fatding from view as having any credibility towards our election results. hillary clinton lost that election fairly and squarely, basically running on the same messages we heard yesterday. it was a repeat. it was this awful sequel.

we litigated all this in the campaign. president trump is very concerned about the leaks that have occurred, and he's very concerned that people would really denigrate the respect that he has for men and women of the intelligence community. why don't you go back to his statement on friday, january 6th, after he had an intelligence briefing that he and vice president pence won't talk about because it is top secret and they won't leak about it because you're not supposed to. they are protecting the security of you and me and our children by not leaking. but what he said that day on january 6th, put that statement out for your viewers if you want to do an honest service. he said i respect the service of our great men and women in the intelligence community. and then the last part of the statement was that he looks forward to directing his own intelligence team within 90 days of becoming the president of the united states to give us a better view of cyber security and to put better security measures in place.

it would be nice if he had a cia director. he doesn't today because the democrats are holding up the cia director. >> i want to go back to a question you continue to deflect. why was it necessary to send out the press secretary to utter approvalable falsehoods that call into everything the press secretary will say from here on out. >> no, it doesn't. >> yes, it can. >> no, you want them to hear that. i think that is a very dangerous statement to make. >> what was the motive to have this ridiculous litigation of crowd size? what was the moment? >> your job is not to give your opinion, chuck. your job is not to say things are ridiculous. you are supposed to be a news person. >> can you please answer the question? why did he do this? you have not answered it. >> i'll answer it this way. think about what you just said to your viewers. that's why we feel compelled to

go out and clear the air and put alternative facts out. >> so it is a political tactic to come up with alternative tack tix and set up the press as your enemy. >> i didn't say that at all. i'm here because of all the provable quantitifiable facts because of the devastation and destruction in our schools with our health care, in our economy, with our small business owners. and, yes, certainly with terrorism. this guy is going to do so much in the first week. he is going to talk to the prime minister today about the middle east and iran. he is going to end the week receiving prime minister teresa may here. they're going to help renegotiate u.s./u.k. trade. but you want to talk about things the media doesn't want to talk about it. you totally missed brexit. you want to talk about provable facts, you missed it all along.

you got 14% approval rating that you have earned. you want to push back on us and, yet, you have a 14% approval rating. >> all i'm looking for is an answer to a simple question. you never answered why or the motivation of what was necessary about doing that yesterday. >> tell me why you just referred to us as ridiculous? tell me what we were lying about with the mlk bust. >> look, you're deflecting -- >> nbc covered that false report. nbc covered that false report, as did 3,000 other articles still up on line. chuck, you can't have a press coming into the oval office on day one of the administration. you welcome them in to be open and gracious and have a great relationship with the press. and a false article was written about the bust of martin luther king jr. days after trump met with martin luther king's son in new york city hand had a

constructive and open conversation where he said we have to unify and help heal the country together. and any snarky attempt to undercut this president. we can't have this kind of relationship. >> i completely agree. but i'm sitting here trying to answer basic questions and you're trying to attack me with some -- >> i'm not attacking you. you attacked us as said ridiculous. look, i am going to have to leave it there. you have an interview. i have the rest of the show. >> ask chuck schumer why we don't have cabinet secretaries approved. we