Donald Trump:
After two days of ducking direct answers to questions as to whether he had ever worked, wittingly or not, as an agent of Russia, President Trump walked out on the White House lawn Monday to finally insist he had not in a pop-up presser.
“It’s a lot of fake news,” Trump insisted.
“That was a very good meeting, very successful meeting,” Trump said when a reporter asked about one of his meetings with Russian ruler Vladimir Putin. WaPo reported over the weekend POTUS has concealed from senior officials of his administration the details of his multiple face-to-face encounters with Putin.
“We talked about Israel, we talked about the pipeline Germany is paying Russia a lot of money for,” Trump said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate.”
“We talked about many subjects. I have those meetings, one-on-one, with all leaders, including the president of China, including the prime minister of Japan. We have those meeting all the time, no big deal.”
Asked point blank if he worked as an agent for Russia, Trump shot back, “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.”
Trump insisted those doing the investigation were “dirty cops.”
Reporters, and Trump, were reacting to reports in New York Times and WaPo. NYT reported the FBI had opened a counterintelligence investigation looking into whether Trump was working for the Russians. WaPo reported Trump has concealed details of his face-to-face encounters with Putin from senior officials in his administration.
Trump had gone with an I-will-not-dignify-the-question response to both. That did not go so well, leading to Monday morning’s pop-up presser.
Here is the video, from Washington Post:
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