Nicolle Wallace and Matt Schlapp Spar Over Don Jr. Statement: ‘Can’t Sit Here and Lie!’

Last night, the Washington Post reported that President Donald Trump personally dictated the misleading initial statement that Donald Trump Jr. released in response to the story about his meeting with a Russian lawyer. Since then, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the president “weighed in” on the statement like “any father” would do, but pushed back on the report that Trump dictated it.

During an MSNBC panel discussion this afternoon, things got heated between host Nicolle Wallace and panelist Matt Schlapp as Wallace took issue with the way the Trump supporter was framing Trump’s actions, especially as the administration had denied for weeks that the president was even involved in crafting the statement.

Wallace first wanted to know if Schlapp had any issues with the president dictating a lie. When Schlapp shot back that the statement being untrue was just her characterization of it, the two engaged in a contentious back-and-forth, with Wallace believing that Schlapp was parsing the word “statement.”

“You can’t sit here and lie,” she exclaimed at one point.

“I’m not sitting here and lying,” Schlapp responded. “My advice to them all along is to get everything out immediately.”

Later in the conversation, Schlapp tangled with the rest of the panel, claiming that no one can know if it is true or not whether Trump dictated the statement because none of them were physically there. At one point, he stated that he wasn’t going to play “eight on one,” referencing his belief that he was outnumbered on the panel.

Watch the clip above, via MSNBC.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona

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