President Trump is claiming ignorance after he held up a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration map that appeared to have been altered with a black pen to show a projection of Hurricane Dorian possibly striking Alabama.

The unexplained map appeared during an Oval Office briefing Wednesday and the hurricane comes after Mr. Trump tweeted Sunday that Alabamians were in danger from Dorian. The map was dated August 29.

His tweet, now deleted, said, "In addition to Florida - South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated." The National Weather Service in Birmingham, Alabama, debunked this assertion in its own tweet 20 minutes later without mentioning the president.

President Donald Trump talks with reporters after receiving a briefing on Hurricane Dorian in the Oval Office of the White House, on Wed., Sept. 4, 2019, in Washington. AP

When the president was asked about the map during an announcement on the opioid crisis later Wednesday, he reiterated his suggestion that the dangerous storm could have easily struck Alabama and that it had been projected to cause damage in Alabama earlier.

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"I know that Alabama was in the original forecast. They thought it would get it," the president said.

When a reporter pointed out the line looked like it was added with a Sharpie pen, the president responded, "I don't know, I don't know, I don't know."

Later Wednesday, Mr. Trump held firm in his stance that Alabama was in Dorian's path, tweeting an image which apparently was provided by the South Florida Water Management District and writing: "As you can see, almost all models predicted it to go through Florida also hitting Georgia and Alabama."

This was the originally projected path of the Hurricane in its early stages. As you can see, almost all models predicted it to go through Florida also hitting Georgia and Alabama. I accept the Fake News apologies! pic.twitter.com/0uCT0Qvyo6 — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2019

CBS News has requested a comment from the White House and from NOAA.