At about 8:30 in the morning on July 17, Trump called counselor Kellyanne Conway, who was at her West Wing desk, and told her to meet him in the private dining room off the Oval Office. The president was upset. He had been watching brutal cable television analysis about his “I don’t see any reason why it would be” comment. “That isn’t what I said,” Trump told Conway. “It is what you said,” Conway told him. “I didn’t say that,” the president insisted. “Why would I say that?” “That’s a great question,” Conway said. “Why did you say that?” Trump had written down what he meant to say in Helsinki:
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