Trump’s chief of staff says comments miscontrued

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney says his comments about the Trump administration’s decision to hold up military aid to Ukraine have been misconstrued.

At a news conference Thursday, Mulvaney said President Donald Trump did withhold nearly $400-million in military aid to pressure Ukraine to pursue an investigation into his presumed political rival.

He then defended the president’s actions as both appropriate and routine, saying, ” I have news for everybody: Get over it. There’s going to be political influence in foreign policy. ”

Later in the day, after Trump’s attorneys tried to distanced themselves from Mulvaney , the White House tried to walk back his comments. An official statement blamed the media for misconstruing his comments.

The acting chief of staff then issued a written statement saying, ” Let me be clear, there was absolutely no quid pro quo between Ukrainian military aid and any investigation into the 2016 election. There was never any connection between the funds and the Ukrainians doing anything with the server…there was never any condition on the flow of the aid related to the matter of the DNC server. ”

Trump, for his part, says he still has ” a lot of confidence ” in Mulvaney .