The White House on Tuesday officially corrected the record on an insulting remark President Donald Trump uttered a day earlier in the Rose Garden.
An official transcript distributed on Monday evening showed the President telling a female senior correspondent she wasn’t “thanking” when he called on her, an odd construction that bore little resemblance to what the President is heard on video saying.
In fact, the President told reporter Cecilia Vega she wasn’t “thinking” – words reflected in a corrected transcript the White House distributed on Tuesday morning.
Calling on Vega during a free-wheeling news conference, the President quipped that ABC’s senior White House correspondent was “shocked that I picked her.”
“I’m not,” she said as she began her question.
“That’s OK. I know you’re not thinking. You never do,” Trump said as he leaned on his podium.
When Vega paused to ask what he’d said – “I’m sorry?” – the President sought to move things along.
“No, go ahead,” he said. “Go ahead.”
When she started in on a question about embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Trump cut her off, insisting he would only answer questions on a new trade pact he’d secured with the US, Mexico and Canada.
It was one of several questions about Kavanaugh that Trump angrily cast aside.
“Don’t do that,” the President told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins when she asked him about the judge. “That’s not nice.”
Eventually, Trump allowed questions on the matter, which has consumed Washington as the FBI investigates claims of sexual assault levied against Kavanaugh.
“People are falling asleep with trade,” he shrugged. “I think it’s the – to me, it’s the most exciting thing you can talk about.”
This story has been updated.
