Trump furiously denies report that Pence stood up to him and begs people to take new tell-all books with 'a grain of salt'

Former president Donald Trump is denying a report that he and Vice President Mike Pence got into a heated exchange in which Pence "lost it," with the two throwing a crumpled up piece of newspaper back and forth at each other.

"The story, written by third-rate reporter Michael Bender, that Mike Pence and I had a big fight over Corey Lewandowski, is totally false," Trump said in a statement Friday morning. "No such fight ever happened, it is fiction as are so many others (sic) stories written in the vast number of books coming out about me."

According to Bender's book, "Frankly, We Did Win This Election," the incident reportedly took place in early 2021 when Pence was set to preside over the certification of the 2020 election. Pence's political committee had just hired Trump's adviser Corey Lewandowski, prompting Trump to reportedly hold up an article about the news while complaining it made him look like "his team was abandoning him." Trump reportedly then "crumpled the article and threw it at his vice president," saying, "So disloyal." That's when Pence "lost it," according to the book.

"Mr. Pence picked up the article and threw it back at Mr. Trump," Bender writes. "He leaned toward the president and pointed a finger a few inches from his chest. 'We walked you through every detail of this,' Mr. Pence snarled. 'We did this for you — as a favor. And this is how you respond? You need to get your facts straight.'"

Trump also complained Friday that meeting with authors of the many books coming out about his administration has been "a total waste of time."

"They write whatever they want to write anyway without sources, fact-checking, or asking whether or not an event is true or false," Trump said in a statement. "Frankly, so many stories are made-up, or pure fiction. These writers are often bad people who write whatever comes to their mind or fits their agenda. It has nothing to do with facts or reality. So when reading the garbage that the Fake News Media puts out, please remember this and take everything with 'a grain of salt.'"

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