Saying he was “very disappointed in my Justice Department,” Trump left the door open to changing his mind.
“I have decided I won’t be involved. I may change my mind at some point because what is going on is a disgrace. It is an absolute disgrace,” Trump said. “And by the way, the only collusion is with Democrats and Russians.”
It was unclear what Trump meant by getting “involved” and whether that included intervening somehow in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
“Our Justice Department, which I try and stay away from, but at some point, I won’t,” the president later added, arguing that there are a number of matters involving Democrats that are worthy of further inquiry.
When asked why he didn’t just sit down with Mueller, he suggested that the special counsel’s team is too heavily Democratic and may already be biased against him.
“I can, but the problem, it is such, if you take a look they’re so conflicted. The people that are doing the investigation, you have 13 people that are Democrats,” Trump said.
Even as he blasted corruption at the FBI, something he traced specifically to the former leadership of James Comey, the president said he holds the nation’s law enforcement agents in high regard.
“By the way, you take a poll at the FBI. I love the FBI. The FBI loves me but the top people in the FBI, headed by Comey were crooked,” Trump said.
The president, asked to rate his job performance, gave himself an A+ and touted what he said are record accomplishments for a president in his first year of office despite having a “cloud over my head” with the ongoing Russia probe. He specifically lauded success in messaging the probe as “a fix” and a “witch hunt.”
“We have a phony deal going on and it is a cloud over my head, and I’ve been able to escape that cloud, because the message now, everyone knows it’s a fix, okay? It’s a witch-hunt. And they know that, and I’ve been able to message it,” Trump said. “I’d give myself an A+.”
Sourse: abcnews.go.com
