CNN's Kate Bolduan pressed Texas governor Rick Perry on Thursday to explain his recent comments that the Obama administration is somehow "in on" the immigration crisis at the border.
Perry met with President Obama in Dallas on Wednesday. The governor appeared on Thursday's "New Day" to discuss the meeting, and Bolduan recalled the comments that Perry made on Fox News' "Hannity" show last month.
"We either have an incredibly inept administration, or they're in on this somehow or another," he had said. "I mean I hate to be conspiratorial, but I mean how do you move that many people from Central America across Mexico and then into the United States without there being a fairly coordinated effort?"
"Do you really honestly believe, as you said in that interview last month, that the administration might be in on this somehow?" Bolduan asked Perry. "I mean, you're suggesting there's some kind of conspiracy here."
Perry denied that. "What I'm suggesting is that this administration and their words and their actions, or the lack thereof, are part of the problem," he said. "I think you're putting the words of conspiracy in my mouth, which I did not say."
"No, you actually did say the word 'I hate to be conspiratorial,'" Bolduan pointed out.
"And I hate to be conspiratorial, I hate to be conspiratorial," Perry agreed. "I did not say I was."
She pressed him again, quoting him saying, "How do you move that many people from Central America across Mexico and then into the United States without there being a fairly coordinated effort?"
Perry said that it was more important to address the issue than get "into a semantics battle." Watch the interview in the clip above.