Michael Cohen's comments were a departure from what Donald Trump’s communications director and campaign manager said Monday. | AP Photo Team Trump all over the map on Morocco 'mistake'

Donald Trump’s lawyer is taking back a statement he made earlier Tuesday that a video clip used in Trump's new TV ad was a mistake.

"I wasn't aware of the question as stated, knew little about the ad or campaign strategy, but after connecting with the Trump campaign, I understand it was done that way to demonstrate that the United States has become a dumping ground for other countries who are continually taking advantage of us. I do not speak for Mr. Trump or the campaign," Michael Cohen, the Trump Organization's executive vice president and special counsel to Trump, told POLITICO in an email.


Speaking to CNN's Chris Cuomo earlier Tuesday, Cohen said that someone “made the mistake” of using a video clip of Morocco instead of Mexico in the candidate's new TV ad, a reversal from the campaign’s insistence that it was "1,000 percent on purpose."

“I think the point is well taken that we have 2,000 miles of open border at the southern border and, well, whoever the person is, I’m sure I’ll be sending them a letter very soon on behalf of Mr. Trump, but the bottom line is it’s the same thing,” Cohen said.

He was speaking in reference to the fact that footage used in Trump’s ad, which implied the clip was from the U.S.-Mexico border, was actually from Melilla, an autonomous Spanish enclave within the borders of Morocco.

“The point is that they’re coming through,” Cohen said. “Yeah, I’m going to have a conversation with whoever made the mistake — there’s no doubt about that — but the truth is people are pouring through our borders which are open.”

Cohen's comments were a departure from what Trump’s communications director and campaign manager said Monday.

“No sh--, it's not the Mexican border, but that's what our country is going to look like. This was 1,000 percent on purpose,” Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s campaign manager, told NBC News.

Trump's spokeswoman Hope Hicks echoed that sentiment. “The use of this footage was intentional and selected to demonstrate the severe impact of an open border and the very real threat Americans face if we do not immediately build a wall and stop illegal immigration,” she said in an emailed statement. “The biased mainstream media doesn’t understand, but Americans who want to protect their jobs and their families do.”