Watch Sarah Huckabee Sanders boldly deny something Trump said on camera hours earlier

President Trump on the U.S. justice system

(Image credit: Screenshot/Twitter/CNN)

last updated 2 November 2017

At a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, President Trump threatened to try to send Sayfullo Saipov, the suspect in Tuesday's fatal truck attack in lower Manhattan, to the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, despite the fact that Saipov has permanent U.S. residence. "We need quick justice and we need strong justice — much quicker and much stronger than we have right now — because what we have right now is a joke and it's a laughingstock," Trump said, on camera.

Perhaps calling the U.S. justice system a laughingstock was not viewed as a good presidential move in other quarters of the White House, because when CNN's Jim Acosta asked White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders about Trump's comments a few hours later, she essentially denied that he said it. "That's not what he said," Sanders replied. "He said that process has people calling us a joke and calling us a laughingstock."

A few hours after that, Acosta still couldn't believe the exchange. He started to read Trump's comments again, and Anderson Cooper cut in. "It's on video, let's just play him saying it." After the clip, Cooper shook his head. "Sarah Huckabee Sanders knows what the president said, she just is pretending he said something else," he said. Acosta called her gross mischaracterization "disappointing." Cooper couldn't get past the blatancy of it. "It's one thing to lie about, you know, something that wasn't actually recorded," he began, then fumbled for words. Watch below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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