Tom Barrack, a close friend and business associate of President Donald Trump, did an interview with the Washington Post this week where he revealed he was "shocked" and "stunned" by some of the president's tweets and rhetoric. But after a call from the White House, he was forced to go on CNN to "clear up" his comments.
“He thinks he has to be loyal to his base,” Barrack told The Post Wednesday. “I keep on saying, ‘But who is your base? You don’t have a natural base. Your base now is the world and America, so you have all these constituencies; show them who you really are.’ In my opinion, he’s better than this.”
CNN's Gloria Borger reported, "needless to say, he heard from the White House." During an appearance on "The Situation Room," Borger said that he spoke with the network to try to "clear up what he really meant."
With Borger, Barrack waxed poetic about the president's governing abilities, calling him "the best communicator in history" and discussing the many "differing opinions" of his advisers who have "matriculated into other places."
"Or been fired," Borger said at Barrack's mention of Steve Bannon and Reince Preibus.
But it was when Barrack said reports about Secretary of State Rex Tillerson calling Trump a moron "doesn't cause friction" that Borger laid into him.
"It doesn't?" she asked incredulously.
"Neither one of them take too seriously what the reports of those kinds of incidents are," Barrack said.
Watch the president's friend of 40 years walk back his own statements below, via CNN.
Trump's friend and business partner forced to...by sarahburris