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This column provides a daily update on key presidential actions as well as comments, whether spoken aloud or on Twitter, by President Trump. Like the stock market, the deadline for Trump Today action is 4 p.m. Eastern Time, even as we acknowledge that substantive news can and does occur after hours.
President Donald Trump said he was “very disappointed” in his Justice Department and that he wouldn’t stay away from it, blasting the agency during a spirited interview on Fox News on Thursday.
“I try to stay away from it,” Trump told “Fox & Friends,” “but at some point, I won’t.”
WITCH HUNT
Trump told the hosts that there’s a “witch hunt” going on, using the term he typically employs for the probe into possible collusion between his campaign and Russia. Trump said there are people in the Justice Department “that shouldn’t be there,” though he didn’t name names. Asked last week during a news conference if he would fire special counsel Robert Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing the probe, Trump only said, “they’re still here.”
The president also said on Fox that he did spend the night in Moscow at the Miss Universe contest in 2013, appearing to contradict what former FBI Director James Comey says Trump told him. Trump fired Comey in May.
TESTER WILL HAVE ‘PRICE TO PAY’
Trump called into the show just minutes after Dr. Ronny Jackson, Trump’s nominee for Veterans Affairs secretary, withdrew his name from consideration amid allegations of being drunk on the job and improperly giving out prescription drugs.
Jackson called the allegations “completely false and fabricated.” Trump defended Jackson and lit into Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. Democrats released details of the allegations against Jackson on Wednesday.
“I think Jon Tester has a big price to pay in Montana,” Trump said. Tester is up for reelection and Trump carried his state by double digits in 2016.
Trump says he has a name in mind to replace Jackson, someone with “political capability.”