United States President Donald Trump walked out of a press conference on Saturday after a reporter fact-checked him on a lie about veterans’ health care that the President has repeated more than 150 times in the past months. During the conference, Trump also announced executive actions on coronavirus relief. 

The President, who faces his reelection bid in November, was speaking at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club when he made the spurious claim of getting the Veterans Choice programme passed. He added, “They have been trying to get that passed for decades and decades and decades and no President’s ever been able to do it, and we got it done.”

At this point, White House correspondent Paula Reid from CBS News challenged Trump on the claim and asked him “Why do you keep saying that you passed Veterans Choice?”

While Trump did sign a law called the VA MISSION Act in 2018 that expanded the eligibility criteria for the Veteran Choice programme, the original programme was signed and passed by former president Barack Obama in 2014. Obama had signed the Veteran Choice programme into law in 2014. The law allowed veterans to be covered by the government for care provided by doctors outside the VA system and was a bipartisan initiative of Senator Bernie Sanders and the late John McCain, reported CNN.

While Trump tried to wiggle out of the conversation, CBS reporter Reid continued to press the President by stating “You said you passed Veterans Choice. It was passed in 2014…it is a false statement Sir.”

The altercation forced Trump to end the conference hastily and he walked out after thanking everybody present in the room.