\u201cAs a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy\u201d
\nWASHINGTON
\nPresident Trump took on the media and James Comey in a string of fiery tweets Friday morning, warning the ousted FBI director not to leak details of their conversations while suggesting he could cancel future press briefings — in response to the media uproar over his team\u2019s changing narrative on Comey\u2019s firing. In doing so, the president also gave cover to his embattled representatives who have scrambled to reconcile the president\u2019s recent statements and the administration\u2019s original explanation.
\n\u201cAs a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!\u201d Trump wrote. \u201cMaybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future \u201cpress briefings\u201d and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???\u201d
\nTrump then fired a shot across the bow at his terminated ex-top cop: \u201cJames Comey better hope that there are no \u2018tapes\u2019 of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!\u201d This comes as details from a supposedly private dinner conversation between Trump and Comey emerged in The New York Times.
\nAs for Trump\u2019s warning to the press, he was responding to coverage of his claim to NBC News that he was going to fire Comey regardless of any recommendation from his team — in spite of prior claims suggesting otherwise.
\nWhite House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Tuesday night said Trump fired Comey after receiving a written recommendation from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, along with a letter from Attorney General Jeff Sessions. That memo cited Comey\u2019s mishandling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton\u2019s secret email server as the primary reason for his firing.
\n\u201cThat was a DOJ decision,\u201d Spicer said.
\nVice President Pence, speaking at the Capitol on Wednesday, also pinned the impetus for the firing on Rosenstein and Sessions.
\n\u201cLet me be very clear that the President\u2019s decision to accept the recommendation of the deputy attorney general and the attorney general to remove Director Comey as the head of the FBI was based solely and exclusively on his commitment to the best interests of the American people and to ensuring that the FBI has the trust and confidence of the people of this nation,\u201d Pence said.
\nDeputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders also said on Wednesday that Trump was merely following the guidance of his top advisers.
\n\u201cI think it\u2019s real simple,\u201d Sanders told MSNBC. \u201cThe Deputy Attorney General\u2026made a very strong recommendation. The president followed it and he made a quick and decisive action to fire James Comey.\u201d
\nBut Trump blew up that narrative on his own Thursday during his sit-down interview with NBC. During a conversation in which Trump said Comey was a \u201cshowboat\u201d and \u201cgrandstander,\u201d he was also clear he had made up his mind to fire Comey long ago, no matter what Rosenstein and Sessions told him.
\n\u201cI was going to fire regardless of recommendation,\u201d Trump said.
\nThat interview aired less than an hour before Sanders took the podium at the White House press briefing to face a hostile group, upset that what they were told on Wednesday was not the same as what Trump said Thursday. Sanders denied the information she previously supplied was inaccurate and contended the narratives actually matched closely. She also said the White House had not been trying to pin Comey\u2019s firing on Rosenstein.
\nTrump\u2019s apparent explanation shift to NBC News has only stoked the battle on Capitol Hill over Comey\u2019s firing.
\nSenate Judiciary Committee Democrats on Thursday cited the shift in asking DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz to probe Trump\u2019s firing. They noted that Trump originally cited the memo from Rosenstein in his dismissal of Comey. However, the Democrats\u2019 letter cited reports that the White House and Justice Department had been working to build a case against Comey, and Trump\u2019s own statement to NBC News that he was \u201cgoing to fire Comey\u201d regardless of any recommendation.
\n\u201cWe believe these circumstances merit a thorough review, and we urge you to address this matter with the utmost urgency. We look forward to your review and a report on your findings,\u201d they wrote.
\nRosenstein, meanwhile, is being invited to brief all senators as early as next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cAs a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy\u201d WASHINGTON President Trump took on the media and James Comey in a string of fiery tweets Friday morning, warning the ousted FBI director not to leak details of their conversations while […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17630,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n