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Trump called Sen. Tim Scott after lawmaker condemned image of Obamas

By
Fin Daniel Gómez
Fin Daniel Gómez
Political Director and Executive Director of Politics and White House, CBS News
Fin Daniel Gómez is CBS News' political director and executive director, Politics and White House. In this role, Gómez oversees the daily White House and political coverage for CBS News and works closely with Washington bureau leadership to inform the Network's political coverage.
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Fin Daniel Gómez

/ CBS News

President Trump called Sen. Tim Scott on Friday after the South Carolina Republican publicly urged the president to remove a reposted video depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes, according to sources familiar with the call.

During the conversation, Mr. Trump told Scott, who is chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, that the repost was a staffer's mistake and said he would take it down. 

The post was removed shortly after the call. Scott, the Senate's lone Black Republican and a close Trump ally, had earlier that he was "praying it was fake because it's the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House," adding that the president should remove it. 

CBS News has also confirmed that other Republican lawmakers contacted the president to urge him to take down the post. In this instance, however, Mr. Trump personally called Scott.

Scott led the chorus of congressional Republicans who publicly condemned the video, which was posted to Mr. Trump's account late Thursday night.

The White House initially defended the post, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying the image of the Obamas' heads on the bodies of apes was part of an "internet meme video" that parodied the Lion King. She urged the media to "stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public." The image of the former president and first lady appeared in the last two seconds of an unrelated video.

Later, however, a White House official said a staffer "erroneously made the post."

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One Friday night, Mr. Trump confirmed that he spoke with Scott. He also said that he "just looked at the first part" of the video, but not the portion that included the former president and former first lady.

Scott is typically a vocal Trump backer. He has criticized Mr. Trump at times, including for that there were "very fine people on both sides" of a clash between White supremacist groups and protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia. Scott told CBS News' "Face the Nation" after those comments that Mr. Trump's moral authority had been "compromised."

Caitlin Huey-Burns contributed to this report.

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