In tweets, Trump threatens to cancel press briefings

Unhappy with coverage of Comey’s firing, president again attacks the media

In a flood of angry tweets Friday morning, President Trump threatened to cancel press briefings as he continues to grapple with the fallout from his abrupt firing of his FBI director and the conflicting stories he and his aides have told about it.

“As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!” Trump said. “Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future “press briefings” and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???”

In a striking reversal one day earlier, Trump told NBC News he planned to fire Comey even before meeting with top- ranking Justice Department officials and soliciting their recommendations on his performance.

“I was going to fire regardless of

“James Comey better hope that there are no ‘ tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” Tweet from President Trump

( their) recommendation,” Trump said in an interview with Lester Holt, calling Comey a “showboat” and “grandstander” who led the agency into turmoil.

He also specifically brought up the ongoing Russia investigation. “In fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself — I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made- up story,” Trump told NBC. “It’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should’ve won.”

These reasons contradicted the White House’s assertions — and even the widely disseminated termination letter Trump sent Comey — that the dismissal was based on the recommendations of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who criticized Comey’s handling of the email investigation into Hillary Clinton last year.