President Trump warned recently fired FBI Director James Comey not to leak to the press during a Twitter rant on Friday morning, hinting at “tapes” of their private conversations.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/863007411132649473
Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Trump is “dangerous” and he “may be obstructing justice” by tweeting about an ongoing investigation, which is a crime.
“[Trump’s] credibility has been destroyed,” Durbin said.
Durbin moments ago on @Morning_Joe: “President Trump is dangerous” pic.twitter.com/zYWZg2ynwM
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) May 12, 2017
During an interview on Thursday with NBC News’ Lester Holt, the president described Comey, the former FBI director whom he fired on Tuesday, as a “showboat.” The president also said that Comey told him he was not under investigation for potential ties between his campaign and Russia.
“I actually asked him,” Trump said. “I said, if it’s possible would you let me know, ‘Am I under investigation?’ He said, ‘You are not under investigation.’”
During the interview, Trump claimed that Comey told him once over dinner and twice by telephone that he isn’t under investigation.
The president also contradicted an earlier White House statement claiming that Trump fired Comey after a memo recommending the dismissal was sent from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Instead, Trump told Holt that he had already planned the firing and requested a memo from the Department of Justice to support his decision.
Earlier this week, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said he thinks President Trump’s tweets are “really important” because they push “conversations out in the open rather than behind closed doors.”
“I believe it’s really important to hear directly from our leadership. And I believe it’s really important to hold them accountable,” Dorsey told NBC’s Willie Geist.
Trump was on a Twitter rampage Friday, also slamming the “fake media” and suggesting that he might cancel all future press briefings and replace them with written handouts “for the sake of accuracy.”