Trump battles with Democrats: Live updates - CNN

JIM WATSON / Contributor

President Trump erupted this morning when he heard Nancy Pelosi accuse him of engaging in a cover up, according to a source familiar with his reaction.

Though he lashed out at the investigations overall in the Rose Garden, this person says he was the angriest about her remark.

Officials insist that if she had not said that, the infrastructure meeting would have gone on as scheduled.

"Bottom line: if Nancy Pelosi had not come out this morning and said what she said about "cover up," they would still be in there right now meeting on infrastructure," one senior White House official argued.

The official said "all was on track" until Pelosi made those comments this morning, setting Trump off.

Officials then scrambled to set up a Rose Garden event for Trump to address the media after his brief meeting with Democrats, as Kevin reported.

Trump met with the Democrats on infrastructure three weeks ago while the investigations were going on, and they were not brought up, the Democrats said. But Trump had voiced concern in recent days that he was being “played by Democrats” on infrastructure.

“You know I think what they want me to do is say, ‘Well what we'll do is raise taxes,’ and we'll do this and this and this, and then they'll have a news conference, see, Trump wants to raise taxes,” Trump said.

What Pelosi said: Pelosi on Monday night said the committees were on course to be successful and Democrats' message must be "No one is above the law," and that they are witnessing "the cover-up." The California Democrat also said they all agreed they needed to get to the truth, but that the public believes kitchen table issues must also be dealt with.

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