Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC), who lost his congressional primary after President Donald Trump endorsed his more Trump-aligned challenger, said Wednesday that the President “was booed” by Republican lawmakers Tuesday.
That, along with other reports, contradicts a tweet from Trump Wednesday afternoon that Republicans “applauded and laughed loudly when I mentioned my experience with Mark Sanford.”
Trump, according to multiple reports and at least one other member of Congress in the room, sarcastically asked Republicans during a closed-door meeting Wednesday if Sanford was in attendance, because he wanted to congratulate him on his (unsuccessful) race.
Politico’s Jake Sherman and several others reported that Trump was “booed, a bit” after Trump then called Sanford a “nasty guy.” Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) said Wednesday that “Nobody applauded or laughed” after the snark, and that “People were disgusted.”
Sanford appeared to confirm that Wednesday.
“I do think it’s humbling, one, that in this case the President was booed by colleagues in the House who basically said we don’t go along with what the President is suggesting, and two, I think that there is a bigger message for all of us to take away from what occurred that goes well beyond the President’s comments, well beyond the election in the first district, and that is the importance and the value of dissent in our political system,” the outgoing congressman, who was not in attendance Tuesday, said.
Because he’d spoken up at times against the President, Sanford said, “I was singled out.”
“I think part of what the President did yesterday was to send a very chilling message to my colleagues on, ‘Hey, if you speak up against me, there will be consequences,'” he said. “And I think that’s the last thing we need in our political system.”
Watch below:
Rep. Sanford says Trump was booed after POTUS mocked him in a meeting Tuesday pic.twitter.com/9LQrBfyeJf
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) June 20, 2018
