President Donald Trump said Monday that he is “trying to find out” about the whistleblower who flagged his July 25 call with the president of Ukraine.
After a swearing-in ceremony for the new Secretary of Labor, Eugene Scalia, in the Oval Office, the president stopped to answer a question about the identity of the whistleblower.
WATCH:
“President Trump, do you know the identity of the whistleblower?” NBC’s Hallie Jackson asked the president.
“Well, we’re trying to find out about a whistleblower. We have a whistleblower that reports things that are incorrect,” Trump responded. “As you know, by now, have probably figured out, the statement I made to the president of Ukraine was perfect.”
“The whistleblower reported a totally different statement,” he continued. “When the whistleblower reported it, he made it sound terrible.”
The president then bashed House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff for making false statements about the call during a congressional hearing with Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire.
Trump said Rep. Schiff “made up” his own version of the call because “when he saw my call to the president of Ukraine, it was so good that he couldn’t quote from it because there was nothing done wrong.” (RELATED: Joe Biden, Donald Trump, And Ukraine: An Explainer)
Democrats have announced a formal impeachment inquiry into the president over the call, during which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden. During the Obama administration, Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees from Ukraine if they did not fire a top prosecutor, who happened to be looking into an oil company that employed his son, Hunter.