The White House press pool had to send out a Tuesday correction after they claimed White House chief of staff John Kelly said President Trump would not read the Democrat memo because it is too “lengthy.”
Unfortunately for those desperate to malign the president, it turns out that the initial pool report had misquoted Kelly. The real exchange revealed that Kelly had just recently given Trump the “pretty lengthy” memo and Trump was planning on reading it as soon as he could. There was no mention of Trump being briefed.
Pool sends corrected version of Kelly on Democratic memo:
Q: Has the president read the Democratic memo?
Kelly: “He has it. It’s pretty lengthy.”
Q: Has he read the whole thing?
Kelly: “No, no, I just gave it to him.”
Q: He’ll read it after this?
Kelly: “Oh of course yeah.”
— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) February 6, 2018
WH pool issuing a big correction on something that a lot of outlets ran with:
“For reference, the INCORRECT quote sent in report #3 was, asked if Trump had read the memo yet: ‘No no. It is quite lengthy.’)”
— J.D. Durkin (@jiveDurkey) February 6, 2018
CNN’s Manu Raju, who previously spread the fake news story about Donald Trump Jr. colluding with Wikileaks, had the most popular tweet about the erroneous Gen. Kelly quote on Tuesday.
According to Raju’s tweet, Kelly responded, “No, no. It is quite lengthy” when asked if Trump had read the Democrat memo rebuffing the Nunes memo.
John Kelly on whether Trump has read the Schiff memo. “No, no. It is quite lengthy.”
We are told it’s 10 pages.— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 6, 2018
“We are told it’s 10 pages,” Raju wrote snarkily.
According to NBC News, Kelly also reportedly said that Trump would be briefed on the memo by staff.
JUST IN: Chief of Staff John Kelly says President Trump has not yet read the Democrats’ memo – “No, no. It is quite lengthy,” Kelly said – but will be briefed on it later today, per pool.
— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) February 6, 2018
The incorrect report led to a bunch of journalists and liberals mocking Trump for allegedly being unable to read anything longer than a few pages.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Leader of the Free World.
— Nancy Goldstein (@nancygoldstein) February 6, 2018
Seriously. He cannot read 10 pages
— Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) February 6, 2018
John Kelly was asked if Trump had read the Adam Schiff memo, which he now has to decide on if he will make public. His response:
“No, no. It is quite lengthy.”
It’s 10 pages long. That would literally take the average American 12 minutes to read.
He tweets longer than that.
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) February 6, 2018
The memo is 10 pages long, we reported yesterday: https://t.co/SeelKUw4eI https://t.co/75pIhL3kmI
— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) February 6, 2018
The Democrats memo is 10 pages long – better block out all of Wednesday and Thursday for Trump to get through it.
— Amy Siskind (@Amy_Siskind) February 6, 2018
10 pages is too long for Trump to read on his own. https://t.co/8onlH1QbFu
— Kat Capps (@KatCapps) February 6, 2018