Oops! White House Emails Democrats Its Trump-Ukraine Talking Points.
In what sounds like a scene straight out of “Veep,” the White House on Wednesday accidentally emailed all of its talking points on President Donald Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president to House and Senate Democrats ― and then followed up with a “recall” email hoping lawmakers would ignore what just happened.
The White House even sent those GOP talking points to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), her office confirmed ― a day after she announced a formal impeachment inquiry spurred by Trump’s Ukraine call.
The mishap means that Democrats (and the public) now have insight into how Republicans are being coached behind the scenes to defend Trump pressuring President Volodymyr Zelensky to open an investigation into 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter while Trump withheld military aid approved for Ukraine.
The White House sent out its original email, with the subject line “What You Need To Know | President Trump’s Call with President Zelenskyy,” at 11:21 a.m. It took less than an hour for the follow-up email to go out.
Here’s a screenshot of the recall message, provided by a Democratic lawmaker’s office:
Here's a screenshot of the White House asking House Democrats to please disregard the talking points on Trump/Ukraine they just emailed them pic.twitter.com/55HgOESWyL
— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) September 25, 2019
A White House spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on why any of this happened.
Some Democratic lawmakers mocked the White House for its mistake. Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), for one, sarcastically thanked Trump’s team for sending him their spin.
I would like to thank @WhiteHouse for sending me their talking points on how best to spin the disastrous Trump/Zelensky call in Trump’s favor. However, I will not be using their spin and will instead stick with the truth.
But thanks though.— US Rep Brendan Boyle (@RepBrendanBoyle) September 25, 2019
Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.) went ahead and shared what had been shared with him, calling the GOP talking points “complete Orwellian lies and toxic trash.”
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The trump White House just accidentally sent our office their talking points for deflecting trump’s treachery. They’re complete Orwellian lies and toxic trash, but maybe you’d like to read them to appreciate their corruption! Hazmat ☢️ suit possibly required. pic.twitter.com/twcYGkcO7h
— Bill Pascrell, Jr. (@BillPascrell) September 25, 2019
This story has been updated with comments from Democratic lawmakers.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.