Nineteen months after candidate Donald Trump hailed George Papadopoulos "an excellent guy" as he announced his appointment to his foreign policy team, President Trump labeled Papadopoulos "a liar" Tuesday.
The White House moved later Tuesday to distance itself further from the former campaign adviser who has pled guilty to making false statements and "material omissions" to the FBI about several communications he had with the Russian government.
Asked by Newsmax how well the president actually knew Papadopoulos and did he have frequent meetings with him, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders replied: "My understanding is the only interaction he ever had was the one meeting that the advisory council gathered together, where he was in a large group of other people in the room."
"And to my knowledge," she added, "that's the only interaction they ever had."
The president's top spokesman went on to emphasize Papadopoulos "wasn't somebody that [sic] was a senior advisor, as many of you want to bill him to be."
Sanders added Papadopoulos "was somebody that [sic] played a minimal role, if one at all, and was part of a voluntary advisory board. That's it."
Pressed by Newsmax to confirm Papadopoulos had only one meeting with Trump, Sanders told us: "That's my understanding. That's the only incident we're aware of."
In unveiling his informal team of foreign policy advisers to The Washington Post in March of 2016, Trump mentioned Papadopoulos and called him "an oil and gas guy" who is "an excellent guy."
Of Papadopoulos on the morning after his guilty plea, the president tweeted: ". . . Few people knew the young, low-level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.