A number of reporters in the White House briefing room today confronted Press Secretary Sean Spicer over President Trump‘s tweets denying that Neil Gorsuch said what multiple Senators corroborated that he said.

Gorsuch expressed that he was “disheartened” by Trump’s attacks on the judiciary, according to multiple senators, but Trump tweeted this in response:

Sen.Richard Blumenthal, who never fought in Vietnam when he said for years he had (major lie),now misrepresents what Judge Gorsuch told him? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2017

Spicer’s argument here was to cite this statement by Senator Kelly Ayotte:

Judge Gorsuch has made it very clear in all of his discussions with Senators, including Sen. Blumenthal, that he could not comment on any specific cases and that judicial ethics prevent him from commenting on political matters. He has also emphasized the importance of an independent judiciary, and while he made clear that he was not referring to any specific case, he said that he finds any criticism of a judge’s integrity and independence disheartening and demoralizing.

He got testy as he used Ayotte’s statement to argue that Trump was right because, technically speaking, Gorsuch not specifically talking about Trump. So therefore it was a misrepresentation (even though the only reason anyone would have brought up attacks on the judiciary was Trump-related).

However, another Republican Senator, Ben Sasse, said this morning he specifically brought up the president’s “so-called judge” tweet to Gorsuch and the judge’s response was, “Any attack on brothers and sisters of the robe is an attack on all judges.”

But rather than letting the issue go, reporter after reporter in the briefing room pressed Spicer on this issue. One reporter even told Spicer that given what Sasse said, his comments didn’t “make sense.”

Watch above, via CNN.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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