White House press secretary Sean Spicer turned heads on Saturday evening when he called reporters to the briefing room and read from a written statement: “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration—period—both in person and around the globe.” Spicer drew intense criticism because widely-circulated photos showed that the “in-person” audience for Donald Trump’s inauguration was much smaller than it was for Barack Obama’s first inauguration.

Spicer cited figures about the number of people present in person to bolster his claim: