As an FAA examiner, I find the best answer is to first tell them the result of the check, if then during the debrief they start the "but if" syndrome, I just tell them that it was clearly not enough to meet the standards.
Remember, we are all allowed to bitch after a fail so I usually allow some latitude, however, as I said earlier, they have already been advised of the result so what is said is quite irrelevent to the outcome.