In his first official briefing as White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer told the press that "our intention is never to lie to you", but refused to walk back his widely-disputed claim that the inauguration was the most-watched ever "both in-person and around the globe."
"I believe that we have to be honest with the American people. 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," he said.
This sounds really familiar...
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf is a former Iraqi diplomat and politician. He came to wide prominence around the world during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, during which he was the Iraqi Information Minister under Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, acting as the spokesperson for the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and Saddam's regime.
He is best known for his grandiose and grossly unrealistic propaganda broadcasts before and during the war, extolling the invincibility of the Iraqi Army and the permanence of Saddam's rule. His announcements were met with widespread derision and amusement by Western nationals and others with access to up-to-date information from international media organizations. In the US he was popularly known as Baghdad Bob and in Britain as Comical Ali (a joke derived from Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, who was also known as "Chemical Ali").
"It has been rumored that we have fired scud missiles into Kuwait. I am here now to tell you, we do not have any scud missiles and I don't know why they were fired into Kuwait."