"No I didn't say that", Trump stated abruptly, taking questions Friday at a joint press conference with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis in the Rose Garden.
He also created alarm by not endorsing the alliance's mutual defense clause during a summit last month. That omission triggered a wave of anxiety from European leaders concerned about the president's commitment for the military alliance. He added: "I really want to have a very good first contact with President Trump".
He also pointed out that Romania, which stands of NATO's Eastern flank, heavily relies on the U.S. for defense.
Trump's commitment to Article 5 came as a great relief to NATO's members from Eastern Europe, who are all greatly concerned with an increasingly aggressive Russian policy of expansionism that saw President Vladimir Putin's forces march into the Ukraine in 2014.
Comey's testimony also could expand the criminal investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into questions of whether Russian interference in the 2016 elections involved anyone on the Trump campaign.
USA allies were disturbed last month when Trump did not personally affirm his commitment to Article 5 during a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit in Brussels.
Last year, only five of the 28 countries met the two percent goal: the U.S., Greece, Britain, Estonia and Poland. America alone accounts for about 70% of NATO's combined defense spending.
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What's far more debatable is how much the average consumer values high-fidelity audio, and how much they're willing to pay for it. Instead of pitching the Echo as something cool, Amazon pitched it as something useful across a number of dimensions.
President Donald Trump has attacked Qatar for funding terrorism during a meeting with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis at the White House.
"One hundred percent", Trump said when asked by a reporter during a Rose Garden news conference if he would be open to talking to Mueller as part of the Federal Bureau of Investigation probe he is overseeing.
"I would be glad to tell him exactly what I just told you", Trump said.
"While it is important that senior officials such as the vice president, secretary of state and secretary of defense reiterate that commitment, explicit endorsement - and the absence of an endorsement - has meaning", seven House Armed Services Democrats, including ranking member Adam Smith of Washington, wrote in a letter Friday. The only time Article 5 has been invoked was after the USA was attacked on September 11, 2001.
Administration officials debated the precise language Trump should use in reaffirming the US commitment to the alliance, only to have Trump strike the final language, Politico reported. It is expected to start at 2:45 p.m.
Even though threshold predates Trump's time in office, he has championed "even if at times he has appeared to misunderstand how that money is spent", The Los Angeles Times notes.
He said that he'd carefully documented his interactions with Trump because he anxious Trump would misrepresent them, and accused the administration of spreading "lies, plain and simple" about the reasons for his firing. Other countries are starting to realize that it's time to pay up. "NATO and the European Union don't have to compete against each other".
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