One of Trump’s advisers, Kellyanne Conway, was in an interview with Chuck Todd on Sunday on Meet The Press. She was asked why the Press Secretary made such a big deal over the inauguration crowd. She said:
“Don’t be so overly dramatic about it, Chuck. They’re saying it’s a falsehood and our press secretary, Sean Spicer, gave alternative facts to that.”
To which Todd said:
“Wait a minute. Alternative facts! Four of the five facts that he uttered were just not true. Alternative facts are not facts, they’re falsehoods.”
Adam Schiff, a Democratic congressman from California:
“If Trump can’t handle the press on crowd size, just wait until they report on the economy, budget and healthcare. Anything unfavourable he will call a lie.”
The dictionary Merriam-Webster tweeted this after the interview:
?A fact is a piece of information presented as having objective reality. https://t.co/gCKRZZm23c
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) January 22, 2017
The dictionary’s website had a spike in searches for the word “fact.”
Twitter Reactions To Conway
Twitter had some interesting and hilarious reactions to this. The hashtag #AlternativeFacts is trending.
Samantha Bee of the show Full Frontal tweeted:
Hillary is president right now. I choose to believe this. #alternativefacts
— Full Frontal (@FullFrontalSamB) January 22, 2017
Even Comedy Central is getting in on the fun:
#AlternativeFacts are just like regular facts except you're full of shit.
— Comedy Central (@ComedyCentral) January 23, 2017
George Takei used a reference from the book 1984 when talking about “alternative facts:”
Kellyanne Conway now refers to their lies as "alternative facts." We get it. War is peace, freedom is slavery, Trump is presidential.
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) January 22, 2017
More Sassiness From Merriam-Webster
This is not the first time that the Merriam-Webster Twitter account has gotten feisty:
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) January 20, 2017
Even their “word not found” page is funny:
Just realized how great @MerriamWebster's "not found" page is. pic.twitter.com/e7mnin3yDf
— Kelsey Whipple (@kelseynwhipple) January 19, 2017
Someone asked, “Why are you so cool?” They replied with:
Because we have the best words. https://t.co/1smwcGhBZW
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) January 18, 2017
This is going to be an insane four years. At least we have some snarky people to make it a little funnier. Whoever works on Merriam-Webster’s Twitter is a comedic genius.
Here is Conway’s “alternative facts” remark:
Featured image via YouTube screenshot.
