On Thursday, The Atlantic‘s Edward-Isaac Dovere reported that Congressman Matt Gaetz took a phone call with President Donald Trump after his Twitter threat to Michael Cohen.

President Trump called @mattgaetz last night from Hanoi to talk the Cohen testimony and the threats (since rescinded) Gaetz made about Cohen.
"I was happy to do it for you. You just keep killing it," Gaetz was heard telling him.
(Gaetz told me he doesn't discuss calls w/POTUS)

— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) February 28, 2019

Call happened at just before 9 PM last night DC time, which means that the president was making this phone call as he headed into his meetings with Kim for the day (Hanoi is 12 hours ahead), which of course seem to have fallen apart not long after https://t.co/XmG3ywhEDz

— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) February 28, 2019

Gaetz appeared on Fox News tonight to again apologize for the now-deleted tweet, but he also said to Martha MacCallum that the reporting is false:

“I wasn’t talking to Donald Trump. At 8:37 P.M. I got a phone call from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Ron DeSantis and I spoke for 13 minutes, and he was calling to thank me––not about Michael Cohen or payoffs to porn stars––but because I had made a recommendation to him for someone to serve on the Orlando Airport Board… and Governor DeSantis said, ‘Well, you know, I appreciate you doing that for me.’ I said, ‘Hey, governor, I was happy to do that for you. You just keep killing it.'”

He said DeSantis told that to The Atlantic and slammed them for not issuing a retraction or taking it down. MacCallum asked if he has proof the call was between him and DeSantis. Gaetz said he does.

He claimed he “never spoke to the president when he was in Vietnam or the way back.”

After Gaetz initially denied the report, Dovere said in response that he “offered Gaetz several chances to refute the comment to Trump, but he left it at saying he doesn’t discuss conversations with Trump”:

tracking timing: the tweet in which Gaetz said he apologized to Cohen was sent *after* he talked to Trump and said he was happy to do it.
(I offered Gaetz several chances to refute the comment to Trump, but he left it at saying he doesn't discuss conversations with Trump.)

— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) February 28, 2019

Gaetz's initial response to me this morning, by text, when I told him I wanted to talk to him about his conversation with Trump last night:
"I don’t do read outs on my convos w POTUS." https://t.co/wwSxFx0z4x

— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) February 28, 2019

You can watch above, via Fox News.

[image via screengrab]

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/2EqX8Xi