Baghdad Bob Spicer, in his tirade today, told an easily verifiable LIE about Metro ridership yesterday and on President Obama’s last inauguration. He said that Metro ridership yesterday was 420,000, compared to only 317,000 at President Obama’s last inauguration. Although current figures aren’t available on Metro’s website, the figures for every date in both 2009 and 2013 are available. They show the Metro ridership on Inauguration Day 2013 (which was on January 21, since January 20 was a Sunday) was 783,000, not 317,000. Even on Sunday, the day before President Obama’s Second Inaugural, which is normally a low ridership day, Metro ridership was 405,000, which is awfully close to what Spicer claims Trump got for his actual Inauguration Day.
But as everyone who has ever spent much time in D.C. around Inauguration Day, there is normally heavier attendance at a President’s first inaugural than at a second one. And that was certainly true of President Obama’s first Inauguration Day, when Metro ridership totaled 1,112,000.
You can verify the figures for yourself at the Metro website. The figure for the first Obama Inauguration is #1847, while that of the second Obama Inauguration is #3309.
If I could figure out how to post a title picture, I’d post one of the real Baghdad Bob, who seems to be Spicer’s role model as a press spokesman.