"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2018-08-21T21:58:27Z"
data-video-section="politics"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/08/21/trump-manafort-sad-russian-collusion-sot-tsr-vpx.cnn"
data-branding-key=""
data-video-slug="trump manafort sad russian collusion sot tsr vpx"
data-first-publish-slug="trump manafort sad russian collusion sot tsr vpx"
data-video-tags="donald trump,political figures - us,continents and regions,crime, law enforcement and corrections,criminal law,eastern europe,europe,government and public administration,government bodies and offices,investigations,law and legal system,paul manafort,politics,russia,russia meddling investigation,us federal government,verdicts,white house,robert mueller"
data-details="">
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2018-09-05T21:49:50Z"
data-video-section="politics"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/09/05/trump-nyt-anonymous-op-ed-reaction-sot-tsr-vpx.cnn"
data-branding-key=""
data-video-slug="trump nyt anonymous op ed reaction sot tsr vpx"
data-first-publish-slug="trump nyt anonymous op ed reaction sot tsr vpx"
data-video-tags="companies,donald trump,government and public administration,government bodies and offices,new york times co,political figures - us,us federal government,white house"
data-details="">
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2018-09-06T04:00:15Z"
data-video-section="politics"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/09/06/john-dean-trump-nyt-op-ed-ctn-sot-vpx.cnn"
data-branding-key=""
data-video-slug="john dean trump nyt op ed ctn sot vpx"
data-first-publish-slug="john dean trump nyt op ed ctn sot vpx"
data-video-tags="donald trump,political figures - us,companies,government and public administration,government bodies and offices,john dean,new york times co,us federal government,white house"
data-details="">
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2018-09-04T17:02:02Z"
data-video-section="politics"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/09/04/bob-woodward-book-trump-white-house-ip-vpx.cnn"
data-branding-key=""
data-video-slug="bob woodward book trump white house ip vpx"
data-first-publish-slug="bob woodward book trump white house ip vpx"
data-video-tags="government and public administration,government bodies and offices,us federal government,white house,arts and entertainment,basketball,donald trump,paintings,political figures - us,sports and recreation,visual arts"
data-details="">
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2018-08-28T22:05:58Z"
data-video-section="politics"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/08/28/donald-trump-warns-of-violence-midterms-sot-tsr-vpx.cnn"
data-branding-key="situation-room"
data-video-slug="donald trump warns of violence midterms sot tsr vpx"
data-first-publish-slug="donald trump warns of violence midterms sot tsr vpx"
data-video-tags="2018 midterm elections,donald trump,elections (by type),elections and campaigns,government and public administration,government bodies and offices,government organizations - us,midterm elections,political figures - us,political organizations,politics,us congress,us federal government,us political parties,us republican party,white house"
data-details="">
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2018-08-23T13:53:27Z"
data-video-section="politics"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/08/23/donald-trump-fox-news-intv-impeach-somebody-great-job-economy-crash-sot-nr-vpx.cnn"
data-branding-key=""
data-video-slug="donald trump fox news intv impeach somebody great job economy crash sot nr vpx"
data-first-publish-slug="donald trump fox news intv impeach somebody great job economy crash sot nr vpx"
data-video-tags="21st century fox,banking, finance and investments,business, economy and trade,companies,donald trump,economic conditions,economic crisis,economy and economic indicators,financial markets and investing,fox news,government and public administration,government bodies and offices,impeachment,political figures - us,political scandals,politics,scandals,securities trading,stock market crashes,stock markets,us federal government,white house"
data-details="">
In the leaders’ telling, though, the calls never happened – and the White House has belatedly agreed.
It was an unusual pattern of pushback against the President of the United States, a frequent and expansive telephoner who sometimes hands out his personal cell number to the people he meets. And it raised questions about which presidential assertions can be believed and which cannot.
On Wednesday, the White House responded to questions about the calls with the same answer: the conversations actually took place in person.
“I wouldn’t say it was a lie. That’s a pretty bold accusation,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters at the White House. “The conversations took place, they just simply didn’t take place over a phone call.”
Her answer came after both the Mexican government and the Boy Scouts contradicted Trump’s claims that he took calls from their leaders.
On Monday, Trump heralded a call from Mexico’s president about a decrease in border crossings.
“Even the President of Mexico called me,” Trump asserted in the Oval Office on Monday after swearing in his new chief of staff. “Their southern border, they said very few people are coming because they know they’re not going to get to our border, which is the ultimate compliment.”
In Mexico, however, officials recalled a different version of events.
“President Enrique Pe?a Nieto has not been in recent communication via telephone with President Donald Trump,” read a statement from the Mexican President’s office.
The two leaders did meet in person on the sidelines of last month’s G20 meetings in Hamburg, Germany, and did discuss migration, Pe?a Nieto’s office said.
Sanders said it was that meeting that Trump was referring to when the President mentioned a phone call.
“He was referencing a conversation they had at the G20 summit, where they specifically talked about the issues that he referenced,” Sanders explained on Wednesday.
The Mexican presidential authorities also said Pe?a Nieto offered Trump a different set of figures than the ones he claimed: a 31% decrease in repatriations of Mexican citizens from the United States over the past six months and a 47% decrease in migration from central America into Mexico.
It wasn’t the only disputed phone call of the week. The Boy Scouts of America, which has already apologized for Trump’s politically-tinged speech at its annual Jamboree, said none of their leaders phoned the President afterward to praise his appearance – counter to Trump’s own version of events.
“I got a call from the head of the Boy Scouts saying it was the greatest speech that was ever made to them, and they were very thankful,” the President told The Wall Street Journal last week, according to a transcript obtained by Politico.
An official with the Scouts said on Wednesday they were not aware of any phone calls between the group’s leadership and the President.
And they said their statement last week apologizing for the political tone of Trump’s remarks still stood.
“The Chief Scout Executive’s message to the Scouting community speaks for itself,” the organization said in a statement.
Michael Surbaugh, the Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts, wrote last week that he “regrets that politics were inserted into the Scouting program” after Trump used his address to the gathering to go after his 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton, and accuse the media of bias.
Sanders again said the discussion happened in person. She did not specify who Trump spoke with.
“Multiple members of the Boy Scouts leadership following his speech there that day congratulated him, praised him and offered quite powerful compliments following his speech,” Sanders said Wednesday.