During a routine morning Twitter tirade, President Donald Trump lashed out at news organizations he said were "unable to function" due to their "hatred and extreme bias of me."
The rant primarily targeted the organization he's long perceived to be his arch nemesis: CNN. However, he targeted NBC as well, accusing veteran reporter Lester Holt of "fudging" his tape on Russia.
He then continued his well-established pattern of vilifying the press, once again referring to them as an "enemy of the people."
Now, Twitter users are sharing the video of Holt's interview of Trump, in which the president said he fired former FBI director James Comey for "this Russia thing"--an action perceived by many to qualify as obstruction of justice.
Trump says in the interview:
"I was going to fire Comey knowing there was no good time to do it. And 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, it's an excuse by the democrats for having lost an election that they should have won."
Despite his statements on tape, Trump has repeatedly stated that he did not fire Comey because of his refusal to hinder the Russia investigation.
The White House's official statement following Comey's firing in 2017 was done solely at the recommendation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. However, Trump contradicted the White House's initial statement, insisting he'd planned to fire Comey anyway.
Comey has been the target of much of Trump's anger since he originally stated that Trump had asked him to go easy on former national security advisor Michael Flynn for lying to the FBI.
The relationship only worsened after Comey's firing.
The former FBI director has since written a book and the two hardly hide their mutual dislike on Twitter.
Despite frequent attacks from the president, Comey hasn't hesitated to call him out--albeit with somewhat more eloquence.
Lester Holt has yet to issue a response to the president, but it seems clear that Americans aren't going to let the president's accusation go unnoticed.
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