CNN reports:
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that former FBI Director James Comey was not fired because of the Russia investigation — a statement directly at odds with the President’s own comments on Comey’s dismissal. Trump had told NBC News last year that he was thinking of “this Russia thing” when he decided to fire Comey.
After Comey’s ouster, Trump told NBC News’ Lester Holt in an interview, “regardless of (Rosenstein’s) recommendation, I was going to fire Comey.”
“And in fact when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won,'” Trump said.
Slippery James Comey, the worst FBI Director in history, was not fired because of the phony Russia investigation where, by the way, there was NO COLLUSION (except by the Dems)!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2018
This contradicts what Trump said in his Lester Holt interview last May. Trump said he had decided to fire Comey and explained his reasoning: "This Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story." https://t.co/iqYIf8nPYQ
— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) April 18, 2018
Trump tweeted this morning: Comey “was not fired because of the phony Russia investigation.”
Trump last year: I fired Comey because of “this Russia thing.” https://t.co/2AOZWM3PQZ
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) April 18, 2018