He went on to blame the appearance of a smaller crowd on the Washington Mall's floor coverings and supposed magnetometers, saying, "This is the first time in our nation's history that floor coverings have been used to protect the grass on the Mall," and insisted this "had the effect of highlighting areas people were not standing." The same coverings were used for Obama's 2013 inauguration, as you can see here. As for security clearance points, which Spicer claimed prevented "hundreds of thousands of people from being able to access the Mall," there were no magnetometers (an X-ray style security checkpoint, of the sort you pass through in airports) used on the mall at all, a spokesperson from the United States Secret Service told CNN . Former White House Press Secretaries Jay Carney and Ari Fleischer responded to Spicer's remarks on Twitter, with Carney highlighting that a press conference based on lies is "not normal."