Remember when Donald Trump told reporters in Vietnam that Kim Jong Un said he “didn’t know” about the death of Otto Warmbier—the American student who was imprisoned in North Korea, and died days after being sent back to the U.S. with brain damage? And that he, Trump, had chosen to believe him? You should, because it just happened yesterday. Also, it was recorded on camera, and it pissed off a whole bunch of people, who saw it as yet another instance of Trump taking a murderous dictator at his word. “He gave cover . . . to a leader who knew very well what was going on with Otto Warmbier,” Republican Rick Santorum lamented on CNN, calling the move “reprehensible,” while House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff labeled it “detestable,” and even good-old Ben Shapiro called it “F**king pathetic.” Yet, if you ask the president, that feedback is totally unwarranted! According to Trump, his comments—which, again, were captured on tape—were totally misinterpreted:

Trump’s frantic backpedaling was presumably in response to Warmbier’s parents releasing a statement saying, “Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son Otto. Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity. No excuses or lavish praise can change that.” Not only is this not the first time the ex-real-estate developer has sided with a sadistic despot over his own people, it’s also not the first time he’s tried to claim that the media “misinterpreted” something stated clearly, unambiguously, and in public, because he thinks we’re as dumb as he is. Incredibly, even as he claims he never said the thing we all heard him say, Trump can’t actually bring himself to blame Kim for what happened to Warmbier, which—earth to Donny—is what people are pissed about. Of course, that probably has something to do with the fact that nobody comes between Trump and his favorite authoritarian, who is giving Vladimir Putin and Mohammed bin Salman a real run for their money these days.

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Trump official breaks the first rule of the Trump administration