LISTEN: Audio Recording Contains Quote From White House Official That Trump Claims Is ‘Phony’

At the end of his pre-golf tweetstorm Saturday morning, President Donald Trump railed against the New York Times for an article on the canceled North Korea summit. Claiming that there was “ZERO disagreement” within his administration regarding North Korea, Trump then wrote that the Times used a quote from a senior White House official that “doesn’t exist,” adding that the paper uses “phony sources.”

The Failing @nytimes quotes “a senior White House official,” who doesn’t exist, as saying “even if the meeting were reinstated, holding it on June 12 would be impossible, given the lack of time and the amount of planning needed.” WRONG AGAIN! Use real people, not phony sources.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2018

Of course, the truth of the matter is that the Times quote was from a White House background briefing that was attended by the White House press corps, with dozens of other reporters calling in. Shortly after the president sent his tweet and was called out by numerous reporters for blatantly lying, journalist Yashar Ali revealed the name of the White House official — National Security Council member Matt Pottinger.

And that wasn’t the only thing Yashar provided. The writer also obtained an audio recording from the briefing, which included Pottinger saying the statement that was featured in the NYT article.

4. I’ve obtained audio of the WH press briefing. You can hear Raj Shah, Deputy Press Secretary, introduce Pottinger (along with the terms – which are standard) and then Pottinger makes the statement that POTUS says was never made. Lots of reporters in briefing room and on phone. pic.twitter.com/2gEYkRSyTv

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) May 26, 2018