During a freewheeling, 2 hour plus speech at CPAC, Donald Trump insisted California governor Gov. Gavin Newsom called him “one of the smartest people I’ve ever met.”

Trump also quipped it was unlikely Newsom would admit it.

That’s probably because IT NEVER HAPPENED.

Yet speaking to CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Monday evening, Newsom said that he can’t admit to complimenting Trump’s smarts, because that is not what happened.

After airing a clip of Trump’s words at CPAC, Cooper asked him simply, “Is that your recollection?”

Newsom said it was not.

“You can’t make this up, Anderson,” Newsom replied with a laugh. “I called the president because I wanted to extend to him my appreciation. I said this publicly, not just privately… I wanted to express the fact that the people in those communities were grateful to him. I was grateful to him. The people in to see communities appreciated not only his time and attention but appreciated his commitments that he made. Somehow that got conflated. I think we hear what we want to hear. I can’t admit, quote, unquote, to what I said because that’s not what I said.”

He added that he still wants to work with Trump on emergency preparedness.

WATCH:

“You can’t make this up. … That’s not what I said.”

California Gov. @GavinNewsom says President Trump mischaracterized a phone call they shared, suggesting he did not call Trump “one of the smartest people I’ve ever met,” as Trump publicly claimed. https://t.co/O5CJm5QswY pic.twitter.com/mFfl410CDj

— CNN (@CNN) March 12, 2019

Another Trump lie!