Donald Trump Says James Comey 'Should Have Never Exonerated' Hillary Clinton

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Trump, earlier this week, had abruptly fired Comey from the top position citing his mishandling of the Hillary Clinton emails case previous year.

Clapper also said he talked to Comey after Trump invited him to dinner shortly after he took office, saying Comey "was uneasy with it".

The president said he never pressured Comey into dropping the Federal Bureau of Investigation probe, and added that there was no "collusion between me and my campaign and the Russians".

Back in January, when Sean Spicer debuted in his role as White House press secretary, I gave him a total of three weeks on the job before President Trump fired him. "That's not a threat. The tweet speaks for itself", Spicer said.

Disputing the basis of the Russian Federation investigation, Spicer said, "There's no collusion that occurred".

But according to Comey's associates, Trump requested the dinner, and pressed him to pledge his loyalty.

FBI Director James Comey makes a statement at FBI Headquarters in Washington, Tuesday, July 5, 2016.

The White House refusal to elaborate left open several questions: Had Trump, as his predecessor had in the 1970s, been covertly taping conversations?

Apparently angered by criticism of the different accounts of the sacking, Mr Trump used another of his tweets on Friday to say: "As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with ideal accuracy!"

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He added: "Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future "press briefings" and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???"

The White House initially said Comey was sacked on the recommendation of the two top officials at the Justice Department. "And I hope he will be", Trump said.

He also specifically brought up the ongoing Russian Federation investigation.

"In fact, when I chose to just do it [fire Comey], I said to myself, you know, this Russian Federation thing with Trump and Russian Federation is a made up story, it's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election they should have won", Trump told NBC's Lester Holt. "It's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should've won".

The White House disputed the account.

Spicer called the coverage of changing stories behind Comey's dismissal miss the point.

"It's always the president's decision", Spicer said.

White House briefings and news conferences provide both "substantive and symbolic opportunities" for journalists to question government officials, said Jeff Mason, White House correspondent for Reuters and president of the White House Correspondents Association. "Doing away with the briefings would reduce accountability, transparency and the opportunity for Americans to see that, in the USA system, no political figure is above being questioned".

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