Trump Denies ‘Changing Any Stories’ About Stormy Daniels Payment. This Tape Proves Otherwise
During a heated exchange with reporters Friday, President Donald Trump insisted that he’s “not changing any stories” related to the $130,000 hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels just days before the November 2016 presidential election.
“We’re not changing any stories. All I’m telling you is this country is right now running so smooth and to be bringing up that kind of crap and to be bringing up witch hunts all the time, that’s all you want to talk about,” Trump told reporters just before boarding Air Force One to Dallas.
Moments later, the president instructed reporters to “take a look at what I said” in April when he took questions from reporters aboard Air Force One about the Daniels payoff. So, what did the president say less than one month ago regarding his knowledge of the $130,000 payment? Here’s the exchange from April:
Here's what Pres. Trump said in April on Air Force One about the Stormy Daniels payment:
Reporter: "Mr. President did you know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels?"
Trump: "No. No." pic.twitter.com/M23iaMJ4S6
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) May 4, 2018
Reporter: “Mr. President, did you know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels?”
Trump: “No, no. What else?”
Reporter: “Why did Michael Cohen make it if there was no truth to her allegations?
”Trump: “You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney and you’ll have to ask Michael Cohen.”
Reporter: “Do you know where he got the money to make that payment?”
Trump: “No, I don’t know. No.”
The exchange left little room for interpretation as to whether Trump knew about the payment or not. Thus, it left no wiggle room for the president to now say that “we’re not changing any stories” after Trump’s outside lawyer Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday that Trump repaid the $130,000 hush money sum to his longtime attorney Michael Cohen.
Whether or not Giuliani had “his facts straight” when made that comment is irrelevant. Even if Giuliani was not correct, the fact remains that the Trump team’s story about the hush money payment did, in fact, change between April and this week. Trump cannot say one moment that he didn’t know about the payment, only for his lawyer to go on national television weeks later and say the exact opposite. Again, even if Giuliani was misinformed, he still changed the narrative in the national media and, like it or not, the narrative in the media is the story.
[Mediaite]