Instead of backing down, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders piled on Friday and said Kelly was justified in accusing the lawmaker of grandstanding, despite erring on the facts. “As we say in the South: all hat, no cattle,” Sanders said of Wilson, an African American who is known for wearing brightly colored cowboy hats.

Sanders also attempted to shift the debate away from Kelly’s inaccuracies to instead focus on his personal integrity.

“If you want to get into a debate with a four-star Marine general, I think that that’s something highly inappropriate,” she said.