State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert denied that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called President Donald Trump a "moron."

Her denial came after Tillerson himself declined an opportunity to refute a news report that he used the word to describe Trump after a Pentagon meeting in July.

Nauert said Tillerson had told her that he did not make the comment and she took him at his word.

Asked about an NBC News report that he had called Trump "a moron," Tillerson had earlier told a reporter that he did not want to comment on "petty stuff."