He said that “floor coverings” had never been used before on the Mall. (They were used in 2013.)

He said that “fencing and magnetometers” kept people from reaching the Mall to celebrate the inaugural. (The Secret Service said otherwise.)

“This is an appalling performance by the new press secretary,” wrote the usually restrained Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post. Added PolitiFact’s Linda Qiu, “Pants on fire.”

The Trump administration — and the president himself — have shown a shocking disregard for the truth in their first days on the job. This disregard puts the media in a tricky spot, because calling out the president of the United States and his staff for untruths will inevitably upset his supporters.

But the media cannot waver. We cannot use euphemisms for “false” and “untrue” when those are the accurate terms.