White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Monday said it was his intention to always tell the truth, but that "sometimes we can disagree with the facts."
The assertion came in an almost 10-minute dialogue with ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl regarding Saturday's contentious back-and-forth about the size of the inauguration crowds and whether President Donald Trump's was the most-watched ever.
"Yes, I believe that we have to be honest with the American people," Spicer said during the first official press conference of Trump's administration.
"I think sometimes we can disagree with the facts. There are certain things that we may — we may not fully understand when we come out but our intention is never to lie to you, Jonathan," Spicer said.
Spicer likened the dispute in facts to corrections that media publications often release.
"There are many mistakes that the media makes all the time," Spicer said. "I don't think that's OK to always turn around and say you were intentionally lying. I think we all go try to do our best job and do it with a degree of integrity within our agencies.
"There are times when you tweet something out or write a story and you publish a correction. That doesn't mean that you were intentionally trying the deceive readers or the American people, does it?" Spicer said. "I think we should be afforded the same opportunity.
"We are going to do our best every time we can," Spicer said. "I'm going to come out here and tell you the facts as I know them. If we make a mistake, we'll do our best to correct it."
Spicer maintained his stance from Saturday that Trump's was the most-watched inauguration taking into account all the different ways and platforms that people watched it.
"It's unquestionable. And I don't see any numbers that dispute that. I'm just saying if you are asking me a question about my integrity I'm saying if you add up all of the various live streaming that we have information on, so far I don't think there is any question it was the largest watched inauguration ever."
Spicer then brought up the erroneous report Friday that Trump had removed the bust of Martin Luther King Jr. from the Oval Office. Spicer brought up the assertion of Rep. John Lewis that Trump's inauguration was the first one he had missed when it was the second; Lewis also skipped George W. Bush's first.
"You are talking about telling the truth and facts. I don't know that it was not malicious and all I'm not saying — but there is a point at which we have a right to go out there and correct the record," Spicer said.
"I think that over and over again there is this attempt to go after this president and say, 'Well that can't be true,' and that's not right," Spicer said. "There is a rush to judgment every time. And it is a two-way street.
"We want to have a healthy and open dialogue with the press corps and with the American people about what he's doing to help this country and unite it. But at a time when he is trying to unite this, he keeps talking about uniting this nation and bringing people together and then a tweet goes out saying he removed the bust of Martin Luther King," Spicer said.
"How do you think that goes over?"