Just perfect. 
 
 Dutch journalist to new US Ambassador: you said there were 'no go zones' in Netherlands, where are they? 
 
 Ambassador: That's fake news, I didn't say that 
 
 Journalist: We can show you that clip now. 
 
 Ambassador: Err 😳🤥 pic.twitter.com/8ohIOzmYAc — Sunny Hundal (@sunny_hundal) December 22, 2017 
 
 A Dutch journalist just asked new U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra why he said there are “no go” areas in the Netherlands, where radical Muslims are setting cars and politicians on fire. 
 
 Hoekstra denied it, and called the claim “fake news.” 
 
 The report cut to a video clip of Hoekstra at a 2015 conference hosted by the David Horowitz Freedom Center saying: “The Islamic movement has now gotten to a point where they have put Europe into chaos. Chaos in the Netherlands, there are cars being burned, there are politicians that are being burned.” 
 
 “And yes, there are no-go zones in the Netherlands,” he added in the clip. 
 
 Then things got extremely weird. 
 
 When the reporter pressed, Hoekstra denied using the term “fake news,” which he'd uttered moments before. 
 
 “I didn’t call that fake news,” he said. “I didn’t use the words today. I don’t think I did.” 
 
 Hoekstra was being interviewed by reporter Wouter Zwart for current affairs program Nieuwsuur. The interview is not playing well in the Netherlands. (One sample headline: “The new Trump Ambassador to the Netherlands, Pete Hoekstra, lies about his own lies.") 
 
 But the former congressman was always going to be a tough sell for one of Europe's most liberal countries. 
 
 [Trump’s pick for ambassador to this gay-friendly country is a gay rights opponent] 
 
 Though Hoekstra was born in the Netherlands, his family emigrated to Michigan when he was a toddler. He served as a Republican congressman for a decade and a half, eventually chairing the House Intelligence Committee. 
 
 In that time, he adopted several positions that are at odds with core Dutch values. Hoekstra is opposed to same-sex marriage and gay rights. In Congress, he voted repeatedly to limit women's rights to abortion. He supports the death penalty and has argued passionately that refugees are a threat to European security. 
 
 Hoekstra has given several talks at the anti-Islam American Freedom Alliance, which has also hosted Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders. In 2015, Hoekstra blamed a “secret jihad” for the “chaos” in the Netherlands. 
 
 After Trump announced Hoekstra's appointment, Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant observed that Trump “put a Dutchman in the Netherlands — but it is a Dutchman from the Netherlands of the ’50s.” 
 
 Of the appointment, liberal politician Sophie in ’t Veld said: “We are looking forward with interest to cooperating with Mr. Hoekstra. We will certainly remind him his roots lie in a country that values tolerance, equality and inclusion. … We expect the representative of our friend and ally the United States to fully and wholly respect our values and to show that respect in all his acts and words.” 
 
 Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated where Hoekstra made his remarks. 

 The interactive transcript could not be loaded. 
 
 Rating is available when the video has been rented. 
 
 This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. 

 2017 began with the miserable toad Sean Spicer boldly lying in the face of clear photographic evidence about the size of Donald Trump’s inauguration crowd as compared to that of his predecessor Barack Obama. The year has followed accordingly with an endless procession of stupid men in bad suits instructing us to deny obvious truths that were sitting right in front of us. So it’s fitting that as December limps to a close, we’re blessed with this exchange between Pete Hoekstra, professional anti-Islamist and new U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, and Wouter Zwart, a baffled TV reporter from that country’s Nieuwsuur news program, which marks the surreal apex of the GOP’s love affair with “fake news.” 
 
 In the clip below, Zwart confronts Hoekstra with public comments he made in 2015, invoking a fringe right-wing conspiracy theory that the Netherlands is filled with so-called “no-go-zones,” where local government laws do not apply and Sharia law rules, and that Muslims in the country were setting fire to cars and politicians. Hoekstra says he never made those remarks, smugly brushing off Zwart’s question as fake news, and Zwart responds with video evidence, in which Hoekstra can be heard using the words and phrases Zwart asked him about, almost verbatim. Politicians are struck with amnesia of convenience all the time; what elevates Hoekstra into the brazen doofus hall of fame is what happened next: after playing the tape, Zwart asked him why he called the question fake news, and he denied that he had, though he’d said it–on camera!–only seconds before. 
 
 It must be seen to be believed: 
 
 Pete Hoekstra denying he said something, calling it fake news, then after being shown video of him saying it, denying that he called it fake news pic.twitter.com/ETxFo3U3Vk — Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) December 22, 2017 
 
 We live in hell. Whatever we did to deserve it, I’m sure we’re all very sorry, and it won’t happen again. Please let us out now. Thank you!! 

 New ambassador Pete Hoekstra then denied saying he’d used the phrase in interview with Dutch TV 
 
 The US ambassador to the Netherlands faced an excruciating moment on television when he denied ever saying that there were no-go zones in the Netherlands, calling the suggestion “fake news”. 
 
 Trump’s new choice for ambassador, Pete Hoekstra, who was only sworn in by the vice president, Mike Pence, on 11 December, was being interviewed for current affairs programme Nieuwsuur by reporter Wouter Zwart. 
 
 Zwart says: “You mentioned in a debate that there are no-go zones in the Netherlands, and that cars and politicians are being set on fire in the Netherlands.” 
 
 Hoekstra replies: “I didn’t say that. This is actually an incorrect statement. We would call it fake news.” 
 
 Hoekstra is then shown clips of him saying: “The Islamic movement has now gotten to a point where they have put Europe into chaos. Chaos in the Netherlands, there are cars being burnt, there are politicians that are being burnt ... and yes there are no-go zones in the Netherlands.” 
 
 Challenged about having called this “fake news”, Hoekstra then went on to deny to Zwart that he had in fact used the phrase “fake news”. 
 
 “I didn’t call that fake news. I didn’t use the words today. I don’t think I did.” 
 
 Hoekstra, who was born in Groningen in the Netherlands, was a Republican Congressman for Michigan between 1993 and 2011, and served as chair of the House intelligence committee for two years during that time.
– Are we sure Pete Hoekstra, President Trump's new ambassador to the Netherlands, doesn't have that Memento condition? Hoekstra demonstrated some impressive memory loss—both long-term and incredibly short-term—during an embarrassing interview with Dutch news program Nieuwsuur, the Guardian reports. "You mentioned in a debate that there are no-go zones in the Netherlands, and that cars and politicians are being set on fire in the Netherlands," reporter Wouter Zwart says during the interview. Spin explains that "no-go zones" refers to the notion that there are areas in the Netherlands where Sharia law has replaced government control. Hoekstra responds: "I didn't say that. This is actually an incorrect statement. We would call it fake news." He's then shown a clip of him from 2015 in which he said "there are cars being burnt, there are politicians that are being burnt ... and yes there are no-go zones in the Netherlands.” Hoekstra's response to being shown the clip is truly impressive: He denies using the term "fake news" just moments earlier. “I didn’t call that fake news," he tells Zwart. "I didn’t use the words today." The Washington Post reports the clip isn't playing well in the Netherlands, where one headline blasts Hoekstra for telling "lies about his own lies." Hoekstra, a former Republican congressman and chair of the House Intelligence Committee, was sworn in as ambassador earlier this month.