A presidential aide apologized to Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer and admitted he got the facts wrong after mocking the columnist’s claim that President Barack Obama removed the Winston Churchill bust at the White House,
ABC News reported.
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer criticized Krauthammer last week for repeating the Churchill assertion, calling it “this ridiculous claim,” according to ABC News.
The bust of Churchill in the Oval Office, Krauthammer alleged, had been sent back to the British Embassy by Obama.
There are two Winston Churchill busts, it was later revealed, ABC News reported. One was loaned to the George W. Bush administration and later returned after Bush left office, the other now resides in the White House.
"I take your criticism seriously and you are correct that you are owed an apology," Pfeiffer wrote Krauthammer, ABC News reported. "There was clearly an internal confusion about the two busts and there was no intention to deceive. I clearly overshot the runway in my post… A better understanding of the facts on my part and a couple of deep breaths at the outset would have prevented this situation."