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Does Matt Pottinger Really Exist?

Image result for Matt Pottinger


https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/05/trumps-saturday-of-lies-president-says-official-who-briefed-reporters-doesnt-exist.html

What does this mysterious hypothetical existent look like?

If he existed, he would look a lot like the smiling fellow above.

The Orange One's lies get more bizarre as his office and its trappings go to his discolored head.

On May 26 The New York Times reported (accurately, the videotape backs them up on this) that senior White House official had said that there wasn't enough time to hold the North Korean summit on the originally scheduled date of June 12.

Almost immediately, POTUS -- who seems to have convinced himself that his cancellation of that meeting is a matter of no consequence, that he is still making up his regal mind whether to attend the already-cancelled meeting -- tweeted that the Times was lying, that nobody said that, and in fact that the senior administration official in question "doesn't exist."

This wasn't a meeting with a shadowy source in a parking garage. This was a statement made to the press corps in a background briefing. By Matthew Pottinger. Have I mentioned that it's on tape?

Here's the tweet in which his commander-in-chief denies Pottinger's existence: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1000396430371106817

And here is Pottinger, very much existent, making the statement in question: https://deadline.com/2018/05/donald-trump-matt-pottinger-new-york-times-nicholas-kristof-kim-jong-un-1202398586/

The briefing was "on background," meaning that Pottinger wasn't supposed to be named. He was introduced (as the tape indicates) with the specification that he could be called an "senior White House official," which is exactly the phrase the original NYT story used.

The tape came out only after POTUS made a point of denying that any existing person had said that, making THAT the story.

Sorry, Mr Prez, but Captain Pottinger USMC, who served tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan, is a rather difficult fact to stuff down a memory hole. On Memorial Day weekend yet.




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