CNN's Tom Foreman sounded surprised at his own reporting as he provided an update on the ongoing Reflecting Pool saga.
President Donald Trump has blamed vandals for the problems that have plagued his $14 million renovation of the pool, which turned green with an algae bloom once it was refilled following a paint job that is already deteriorating. At least five people have been arrested for taking chunks of the damaged materials from the water.
"The only name we reallyknow is a former Olympian, David Hearn, a local guy here, and hesaid he went by and all he didwas reach in there," Foreman told "The Situation Room." "He iscompeting in the slalom canoefor the United States of America. He said he's a materialscientist; he studied materialscience. He reached into thewater just to touch this, to seewhat it was like, to see whatthis material was like, where itwas already loose, and then theycame along and they arrested himfor this."
"Part of thequestion here is," Foreman added, "if they'rearresting him for that beingdamage, just because he touchedit, as he said, the question is,what about the dozens and dozensof workers who have been in there day after day, walking allover it, pushing these littlevacuum things all over it,potentially, that causes damageto."
Foreman then described the ongoing efforts to undo the damage in time for the July 4 celebrations, which are less than two weeks away, and he seemed caught off guard by the latest developments.
"In any event, the algae isnot under control," he said. "It's stillthere as of this morning, eventhough they're trying to get itcleared up, and now they'retalking about maybe having todrain the whole thing and startover, literally putting taxmoney, well, figuratively, Iguess, down the drain."
Foreman then explained why Trump seemed so focused on fixing the damage his update had caused.
"He ridiculed allformer presidents, saying alltheir efforts were just foolish,a waste of money, and I can doit for less than $2 million," Foreman said. "Itended up costing seven timesthat much, and so far shows no signs of working any better thananything that was tried before."