Trump nominee says Obama's inauguration crowd was bigger

President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget was just dragged into the debate over the crowd size at last week’s inauguration — and he sided against Trump.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) held up posters at a Budget Committee confirmation hearing Tuesday with photographs of the 2009 and 2017 inauguration and asked Rep. Mick Mulvaney which had more people.


“It does appear that the crowd on the left hand side is bigger than the crowd on the right hand side,” the South Carolina Republican said, referring to the picture of President Barack Obama’s inauguration.

Mulvaney seemed perplexed by the question until Merkley said he wanted to make sure Mulvaney would only deal with the facts if confirmed.

View Key moments from Mulvaney's Senate hearing An excerpt of moments from Mick Mulvaney's Senate hearing on Tuesday.

Budget bills often contain “buried deceptions” and “magic asterisks,” Merkley said. He noted White House press secretary Sean Spicer had falsely claimed Trump’s crowd size was larger than Obama’s; top Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway has called Spicer’s statements “alternative facts.”

Mulvaney said he was not familiar with Spicer’s statements, adding, “I am deadly serious about giving you hard numbers.”