Getty White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders takes questions during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on August 2.
President Donald Trump never received a call from the Boy Scouts of America congratulating him on his speech, or from Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto applauding his desire to build a wall, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
That comes after the Boy Scouts on Wednesday denied that the head of the youth organization called Trump on his political speech to its national jamboree, as Trump had said.
“Multiple members of the Boy Scouts leadership, following his speech that day congratulated him, praised him and offered quite powerful compliments following his speech,” Sanders said, adding that a call never took place.
On Monday, the Mexican government also fired back at Trump after he claimed Nieto called him to compliment his immigration policies.
Trump said earlier in the day Monday: “As you know, the border was a tremendous problem and they’re close to 80 percent stoppage. Even the president of Mexico called me — they said their southern border, very few people are coming because they know they’re not going to get through our border, which is the ultimate compliment.”
Sanders said that it wasn’t actually a phone call Trump had received from Nieto. Instead, it was a conversation the two leaders had at the G20 summit in Germany. She was pushed further by the reporter on the alleged phone calls.
“I wouldn’t say it was a lie, that’s a pretty bold accusation,” Sanders said. “The conversations took place, they just simply didn’t take place over a phone call. He had them in-person.”
Watch a video of Sanders answering the question below:
White House says @realDonaldTrump didn’t lie about phone calls from Mexican Prez or head of Boy Scouts
Earlier at the press briefing, White House Senior Adviser Stephen Miller had several fiery interactions with reporters hours after Trump pushed for the RAISE Immigration Act. One of them in particular was with CNN’s Jim Acosta, who criticized the act for not abiding by the Statue of Liberty’s meaning.