Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney says his comments about the Trump administration's decision to hold up military aid to Ukraine have been misconstrued.
Mulvaney issued his statement after the president's outside legal counsel tried to distance itself from Mulvaney's earlier comments at a press briefing.
Mulvaney now says there was "no quid pro quo" between Ukrainian military aid and that country's willingness to investigate the 2016 U.S. election.
Mulvaney adds that Trump never told him to withhold money until the Ukrainians took action related to a server Democrats used in the 2016 election.
At an earlier briefing, Mulvaney had directly cited questions about the DNC server as a reason that money for Ukraine was being held up.
“Did he also mention me in the past that the corruption related to the DNC server? Absolutely. No question about that. But that's it, that's why we held up the money. Now, there was a report..."
Reporter:
"So the demand for an investigation into the Democrats was part of the reason why he decided to withhold funding for Ukraine?"
Mick Mulvaney, White House Acting Chief of Staff:
"The look back into what happened in 2016 certainly was part of the thing he was worried about in corruption with that nation. That is absolutely appropriate."
Reporter:
"Let's be clear. You just described as a quid pro quo, it is funding will not flow unless the investigation into the democratic server happen as well?"
Mick Mulvaney, White House Acting Chief of Staff:
"We do that all the time with foreign policy. We were withholding money at the same time for, what was it, the Northern Triangle countries, we were withholding aid for Northern Triangle countries, so that they would change their policies on immigration...And I have news for everybody: get over it! There is going to be a political influence in foreign policy... that is going to happen. Elections have consequences and foreign policy is going to change from the Obama administration to the Trump administration."
Trump, for his part, says he still has "a lot of confidence" in Mulvaney.Â
(AP contributed to this report.)
