Spicer: I have not 'knowingly' lied to America

Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer said he did not "knowingly" lie to the American people, adding that President Donald Trump has never asked him to lie.

In an interview broadcast Thursday on "Good Morning America," his first one since appearing at the Emmy Awards on Sunday, Spicer said he doesn't think he's lied to the American people.


"I made mistakes, there's no question. Some of them I tried to own very publicly," Spicer said.

Following his appearance at the Emmys, where he mocked one of his most infamous moments as press secretary, saying "This will be the largest audience to witness an Emmys, period," Spicer told The New York Times that he regrets criticizing accurate news reports about President Barack Obama's inauguration crowd being bigger than Trump's.

Spicer said during the "Good Morning America" interview that "it might have been better to be much more specific with what we were talking about in terms of the universe, not focus so much on photographic evidence."

"I think I could have probably had more facts at hand and been more articulate in describing the entirety of what that day was about," Spicer said.

Correspondent and weekend host Paula Faris also asked Spicer whether Trump had ever asked him to lie, to which Spicer said "no," without elaborating.

When asked why Spicer did not call Trump's travel ban a ban despite Trump doing so, Spicer said the White House could have been clearer in regard to the terms it used.

"I would definitely say that I wish we had been more consistent from the beginning in terms of the terms we would use and the goals we were trying to achieve," he said.

Spicer said that "there are things I did during my time there that I need to go out and correct, and I did that."

He said that he will never give a blanket apology for his job as press secretary, however, adding that there are members of the media who "think that everything we did was wrong."