WH Officials Reportedly Saying Trump Misspoke When He Said He Wouldn’t Support ‘Moderate’ Immigration Bill

This morning during his marathon Fox & Friends interview, President Trump indicated he would not support the more “moderate” immigration bill in the House.

This set off a teensy bit of confusion today, but the White House is reportedly scrambling to clarify that Trump actually misspoke.

Per the AP:

President Donald Trump was confused when he said he wouldn’t support a “moderate” immigration bill that aligns with his administration’s own stated goals.

That’s according to a senior White House official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the president’s thinking…

The official said the president believed the interviewer, Steve Doocy, was referring to a separate push by Republican moderates to force a floor vote on a number of immigration bills — not the comprise bill negotiated by the party’s conservative and moderate wings, with the White House’s input.

One White House official reportedly emailed The Hill, “Yes, we fully support both the Goodlatte bill and the Leadership bill. The President misunderstood the question this morning on Fox News. He was commenting on the discharge petition/dreamers bill — not the new package. He would 100 percent sign either Goodlatte or the other bill.”

CNN also has a White House official issuing a clarification too:

WH official tells @PamelaBrownCNN that Trump "misunderstood" the question about immigration this morning and does indeed support the GOP compromise bill — despite saying on Fox he doesn't. His earlier tweet was supposed to clarify this, but didn't. Hill Rs have been perplexed

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 15, 2018

And Bloomberg reports the White House “told lawmakers he misspoke.”

Perhaps The Washington Post‘s Josh Dawsey put it best:

Hill officials again perplexed at White House. Stephen Miller, senior aide, helped negotiate compromise "moderate bill." Trump then said he wouldn't sign it. Now White House saying he might? No one knows what he actually meant this morning. We march along.

— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) June 15, 2018

You can watch the relevant clip from the President’s Fox News interview above.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac