CNN's Dana Bash described president Donald Trump's meeting with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa as an "ambush."
The two world leaders met Wednesday afternoon in the Oval Office, where White House aides showed a video of speeches made by the Economic Freedom Fighters party calling for violence against white farmers – which Ramaphosa insisted was "not government policy" and represented the views of "a small minority party."
"As we monitor what is happening in the Oval Office, you see a video playing that is in the Oval Office of the White House," Bash said. "We're going to again monitor it, but luckily we have White House reporters here who have on their phones running, explanation and reporting from the White House pool about what is happening, and as you saw, if there's a video playing there, it is a pretty good indicator that things have devolved in this meeting."
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Ramaphosa sat in visible discomfort as Trump made false claims about genocide against white South Africans, and his invitation to discuss the issue was ignored.
"There's been some arguing inside the Oval Office about those claims that South African president has encouraged Trump to listen to other voices that he said would dispute those claims," said New York Times reporter Tyler Pager. "Trump didn't seem to be interested in hearing about that, and so now he has asked his aide, Natalie Harp, to play this video in the Oval Office. It's obviously playing right now, and our understanding is the point of this video is to back up some of the claims that Trump has made about South Africa. It seems this is clearly a well-orchestrated effort. They brought screens, there's not usually TVs in the Oval Office, and and they were prepared to do this."
Associated Press reporter Seung Min Kim said it was more than that.
"It's an ambush," she said."
"I was going to say set-up," Bash agreed, "but, you know ambush works, too."
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