This morning, before the Marine One departure, President Trump made comments on Russia and the FBI.
Trump was asked if he would be willing to share the interpreter’s notes from his meetings with Vladimir Putin.
“I just don’t know anything about it,” said Trump. “ I read it this morning,” he continued, “ It’s a lot of fake news. That was a very good meeting. It was actually a very successful meeting and I have those meetings with everything. I just know nothing about it. … It was a very, very successful meeting. We talked about Israel, we talked about the pipeline that Germany is paying Russia a lot of money — I don’t think it’s appropriate. We talked about that. We talked about many subjects, but I have those meetings one-on-one with all leaders including the president of China, including the prime minister of Japan, Abe. We have those meetings all the time. No big deal.”
TRUMP ON WHETHER HE IS WORKING FOR RUSSIA:
“I never worked for Russia and you know that answer better than anybody. I never worked for Russia. Not only did i never work for Russia, I think it’s a disgrace that you even asked that question because it’s a whole big fat hoax. It’s just a hoax.”
TRUMP ON MCCABE, LISA PAGE AND PETER STRZOK
“The people that started that investigation are McCabe, who’s a proven liar and was fired from the FBI, are Lisa Page, who was forced to leave the FBI, and her lover, Peter Strzok, who we got their text messages. And what they said in those text messages was shocking when you talk about bias. And also Comey and I guess they started it because I fired Comey, which was a great thing I did for our country. So, the people doing that investigation were people that have been caught that are known, scoundrels. They’re … I guess you could say they’re dirty cops.
And I’ll tell you what, it is so unfair what’s happened to the FBI in terms of the men and women working in the rank and file of the FBI. I know many of them, these are great people and they are so embarrassed by their leadership. You’ve never seen — I have never seen a turnaround in a bureau or agency like I have with the FBI. They are so embarrassed. I think twelve people now have been terminated and others. If you look at what’s happening others are going to go. What happened at the FBI. So, when you say, did I have confidence in the FBI or intelligence agencies when I see [unintelligible] and I see all of these people. When I see Lisa, and her lover, and their notes, and their texts get captured and you see what they said about me having nothing to do with the investigation. Let me tell you something. When people see that, you have an angry country because the whole thing is a hoax. It’s a big hoax and it’s very bad for our country.
TRUMP ON FIRING JAMES COMEY
“So what happened with the FBI, I have done a great service for our country when I fired James Comey because he was a bad a cop, and he was a dirty cop, and he lied. He really lied. All you have to do — wait a minute — all you have to do is take a look at the Crooked Hillary Clinton investigation where they brought her on July 4th weekend, July 4th. They didn’t swear her in. They didn’t do a tape. They didn’t do anything. They just let her go and she usually said — mostly said, ‘I don’t know.’ She didn’t know anything, just like James Comey a week ago. He was interviewed by Congress and, you know, unfortunately, people didn’t see it because the Republicans with Paul Ryan, unfortunately, they didn’t put him out there. But what he said was either he’s a bad liar or he’s grossly incompetent. … You can read the transcript.”