Following an astonishing press briefing Thursday in which he openly admitted that the Trump administration delayed military aide to Ukraine in order to push the country to investigate an unfounded 2016 election conspiracy theory, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney appeared on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, where he continued to attempt to unsay words he very clearly stated.

“Why did you say in that briefing that aide to Ukraine depended on investigating the Democrats?” asked Wallace.

“That’s not what I said, that’s what people said I said,” responded the acting Chief of Staff and Office of Management and Budget Director.

"Anyone listening to what you said in that briefing could come to only one conclusion," Wallace pushed back. The Fox host then cut to footage from the Thursday briefing in which Mulvaney very clearly stated that the administration “held up the money” for Ukraine due to Trump’s interest in pursuing an investigation into the debunked theory that that nation, not Russia, was behind the D.N.C. server hack.

"I hate to go through this, but you said what you said," remarked Wallace.

The pair went onto discuss Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and his disastrous Syria policy, before tackling Trump’s just-announced decision not to hold next year’s Group of Seven conference in his Doral, Florida golf resort.

"At the end of the day, he still considers himself to be in the hospitality business," said Mulvaney. "He saw an opportunity to take the biggest leaders around the world and wanted to put on the absolute best show, the best visit, that he possibly could, and he was very comfortable doing it at Doral."

“You say he considers himself in the hospitality business,” Wallace pointed out. "He’s the President of the United States.”



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Gabrielle Bruney Gabrielle Bruney is a writer and editor for Esquire, where she focuses on politics and culture.

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