for their first statement. and they now want to be believed for their second statement. senator durbin is not changing his story. i know what happened. i stand behind every word that i said. i stick with my original interpretation. i am stunned that this is their defense. that is that s their choice. what the president said in that meeting was so awful and so impactful on so many people that when he denied saying it, i feel duty bound to clarify what actually happened. senator durbin has described lindsey graham of forcefully arguing with the president on the description of those countries. on friday, it was confirmed that the state senator told him what dick durbin said about the president was basically accurate. today lindsey graham told south carolina s post, quote, my memory hasn t evolved. i know what was said and i know what i said. here s the president last night denying he said what dick durbin and lindsey graham now say he said.
about it privately at the time is now telling a local paper this. quote, my memory hasn t evolved. i know what was said, and i know what i said. later he said this about the president s language. those of us in my business need to up their game. it s pretty embarrassing when you have to take your children out of the room just to report the news. tell me about it. you know what else is embarrassing? look at this report from the washington post, a theory that senators cotton and perdue have an alternative version of the meeting. the word alternative has come up a lot in the trump era. white house official told me tonight there is a debate internally on whether trump had said hole or house at the end of it. perdue and cotton seem to have heard the latter, this person said, and are using to deny.
twitter, by tweeting. it s going to be done by talking. and understanding. you know, i was out yesterday, so i thought i avoided going back to the whole the house and the den of vulgarity but here it is, it s not going away. lindsey graham of being south ca with some sharp words for mr. trump while standing by his story. the senator told a local paper, quote, my memory hasn t evolved. i know what was said and i know what i said. graham says he responded to the president s remarks by telling him, quote, america is an idea, not a race. at the same time, the washington post reports lawmakers were on the brink of an immigration deal with the president but all the progress vanished when the president erupted at that meeting last thursday, leaving several lawmakers confused and perplexed. joining me now, bloomberg news white house reporter shannon
meeting. and they said those words were used before those words went public. so that s all i can tell you is i heard that account before the account even went public. senator lindsey graham, who also attended the meeting and was basically reported to have tried to confront the president about it privately at the time is now telling a local paper this. quote, my memory hasn t evolved. i know what was said, and i know what i said. later he said this about the president s language. those of us in my business need to up their game. it s pretty embarrassing when you have to take your children out of the room just to report the news. tell me about it. you know what else is embarrassing? look at this report from the washington post, a theory that senators cotton and perdue have an alternative version of the meeting. the word alternative has come up a lot in the trump era.
to do that is by declining to explicitly confirm these comments but to say, you know, that my memory hasn t evolved, clearly a pointed job at senators cotton and perdue over this. but he is very careful not to cross a line and not to reach a point of no return, to balance his frustration with what he said was a very different donald trump on thursday than what we had seen two days earlier in that televised bipartisan meeting. he doesn t want to upset the relationship that he s built for several months now. he s courted the president on the golf course. this was really what it was all about, and he doesn t want to let all that effort go to waste just over one comment that he found clearly very upsetting. at one point he tweeted out