“House Republicans had front row seats to @POTUS’s dazzling display of pettiness and insecurity,” Rep. Justin Amash tweeted. “Nobody applauded or laughed. People were disgusted.” | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo ‘Categorically false’: Three GOP lawmakers refute Trump on reaction to Sanford comments

Three House Republicans ripped President Donald Trump on Wednesday for saying that lawmakers laughed and applauded when he criticized Mark Sanford, a South Carolina Republican who lost his reelection bid after the president blasted him on Twitter hours before the polls closed last week in the state’s primary.

“Had a great meeting with the House GOP last night at the Capitol,” the president posted on Twitter as he was en route to Duluth, Minnesota, for a rally Wednesday evening. “They applauded and laughed loudly when I mentioned my experience with Mark Sanford. I have never been a fan of his!”


Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) responded that that lawmakers were instead “disgusted.”

“House Republicans had front row seats to @POTUS’s dazzling display of pettiness and insecurity,” Amash tweeted. “Nobody applauded or laughed. People were disgusted.”

The Michigan Republican is running for reelection but does not have a GOP opponent in the state’s primary. Amash has in the past said there are no grounds for Trump to be impeached.

Rep. Ryan Costello (R-Pa.) also denied Trump’s claim that Republicans were cheering about his Sanford comments at the GOP closed-door conference on Tuesday night.

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“Categorically false,” Costello tweeted in response to the president’s post.

Costello announced earlier this year that he would not seek reelection, in large part because of the partisan political environment . He has also said that all he does “is answer questions about Donald Trump rather than health insurance or tax policy.”

Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.) told POLITICO on Wednesday that Trump’s tweet was wrong, and that there were “crickets” when he made the comment.

During South Carolina’s primary last week, Sanford lost his first race in his decadeslong political career to state Rep. Katie Arrington. Arrington staked a large part of her campaign on who would be more supportive of Trump. Sanford has been a vocal critic of the president.

Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.