CBS News and other news organizations have investigated President Donald Trump's claim that vandals left a 350-foot gash in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and have found that there is "no sign."
On Monday, Trump doubled down on his assertions about how the Reflecting Pool fiasco happened, saying it "has been given a 300-foot-long gash." The president told CBS News that he would present the evidence in court.
"I can't help it if somebody goes in with a knife and starts hacking it up," Trump has told reporters.
On Tuesday, however, CBS correspondent Ed O'Keefe said the network had inspected the Reflecting Pool and could not substantiate the president's accusations.
"We checked again and still no sign of a 350-foot gash as President Trump alleges," O'Keefe wrote on X.
The correspondent went further in his report that was broadcast on CBS Mornings, noting that he "did a lap around the pool a little earlier to check on things."
"There are far more National Guard troops, local police, even US marshals out here keeping an eye on things," O'Keefe said. "But the one thing we still can't find is that alleged 350-foot gash along the floor of the pool that the president says is there."
"Despite that, the interior department is getting ready to drain the pool again and make repairs again," O'Keefe told anchor Errol Barnett. "The president previously claimed the pool was impenetrable with a blade."
"But Monday, he said that's exactly what happened, claiming someone cut a long gash in the pool's lining and pulled at its edges."
O'Keefe added that other "reporters have been down there today looking for that slit that you mentioned, and there's no evidence of it."
"So many more questions," Barnett concluded. "I'm sure taxpayers will be encouraged to know they at least paid for something with a warranty."
