President Donald Trump tried to backpedal on last week’s promise to release full video of a second boat strike some are calling unlawful, when cornered by a reporter he subsequently denounced as “obnoxious” and “terrible.”
Video shows that Trump did promise to release the full video, telling reporters last Wednesday, “whatever they have, we’d certainly release.”
On Monday, ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott said to Trump, “Mr. President, you said you would have no problem with releasing the full video of that strike on September 2nd off the coast of Venezuela.”
READ MORE: GOP Struggles to Message on Affordability as House Republicans Kill Affordability Bill
“I didn’t say that,” Trump replied. “You said that, I didn’t say that.”
“This is ABC fake news,” the president added.
“You said that you would have no problem releasing the full — okay, well, Secretary Hegseth —” Scott continued.
“Whatever Hegseth wants to do is okay with me,” Trump said.
“He now says it’s under review,” she explained. “Are you ordering the secretary to release that full video?”
“Whatever he decides is okay with me,” Trump responded.
After the president claimed that every boat the U.S. military destroys saves 25,000 American lives, the reporter pressed him to confirm his position on releasing the video.
READ MORE: ‘Corrupt’: Kushner’s Role in Warner Brothers Discovery Takeover Bid Draws Fierce Blowback
“Didn’t I just tell you that?” he charged.
“You said that it was up to the secretary,” she responded.
“You are an obnoxious reporter in the whole place,” Trump said, attacking Scott. “Let me just tell you, you are an obnoxious, a terrible, actually a terrible reporter, and it’s always the same thing with you.”