Poll: 48 percent want Trump impeached Trump, don't give in to Turkey's risky Iran-tied demands MORE as president and commander in chief.
The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll was conducted immediately after the United States leader sacked Mr Comey, who had until last week been leading the investigation into the possible collusion between Mr Trump's campaign and Russia's alleged efforts to influence the presidential election. Comey hasn't spoken publicly since he was sacked, but an associate said Trump's claims are puzzling, adding that Trump sought a loyalty pledge from Comey during the 27 January White House dinner, which the ex-director declined to give. Comey declined, instead offering "honest".
Trump confidants say Bannon has been marginalized on major decisions, including Comey's firing, after clashing with Kushner.
The White House initially said Trump was compelled to fire Comey by a critical memo from the deputy attorney general on the director's handling of last year's investigation into Hillary Clinton's email.
Apparently angered by criticism of the different accounts of the sacking, Mr Trump used another of his tweets on Friday to say: "As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with ideal accuracy!" Trump said the discussions happened in two phone calls and at a dinner in which Comey was asking to keep his job. "Under normal circumstances, we would not consider credible any claims that the White House may have taped conversations of meetings with the president".
"What I will say is there are clearly ongoing investigations on a number of individuals that are affiliated with the Trump campaign and the Trump operation", Warner said.
He has been especially critical of Mr. Spicer, they said, openly musing about replacing him and telling people in his circle that he kept his own press secretary out of the loop in dismissing Mr. Comey until the last possible moment because he feared that the communications staff would leak the news...
In 1973, President Richard Nixon sacked Archibald Cox, the Watergate special prosecutor who was seeking access to tapes of presidential conversations that ultimately led to Mr Nixon's resignation.
While Trump will be pushing hard to include funding for his Mexico border wall, Republicans will need to make nice with Democrats, as at least eight Senate Democrats will be required to pass a spending bill.
Why isn't Trump visiting Masada?
To make matters more conflicted, the new US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, arrived on Monday to take up his post. Trump is reportedly planning to visit the Western Wall in occupied East Jerusalem's Old City during his visit.
Critics have alleged that President Donald Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey was an effort to stifle the FBI probe.
"Trump is putting a lot on the backs of his spokespeople, while simultaneously cutting their legs out from underneath them", said Alex Conant - a GOP strategist and a former adviser to Sen.
"Campaign aides learned not to lean too much on his accounts of events, steering away from unequivocal public pronouncements unless they could point to his words", said Thrush and Haberman. Furthermore, said the Times, Spicer has "failed to use the self-protective tools that savvier Trump aides have adopted".
The White House had no immediate comment.
If the firing triggered a quiet alarm among leading Republicans, and the threat of potential tapes has escalated the alarm, the latest imbroglio over Trump allegedly disclosing classified information to the Russian foreign minister and Russian ambassador to America has triggered a virtual panic among top Republican leaders - as it should!
"But it minimizes the ability of the presidency to both protect him from mistakes and to maximize his strengths", said Mr Gingrich, who is working on a biography of Mr Trump.
He also revealed during the "NBC Nightly News" interview that Mr Comey was sacked because the "FBI has been in turmoil", which appeared to contradict the White House's statements on his decision to axe the Federal Bureau of Investigation director. By firing Comey, Trump has accomplished the opposite of what he intended; he put the Russian Federation investigation on the front burner, and he has done so at a moment when his hold over Republicans in Congress is beginning to wane.
Previous presidents have made a public show of staying out of legal matters, so as not to appear to be injecting politics. "There are days when Sean Spicer can't get into the Oval Office before he does the briefing", said Earnest, who served as Obama's primary spokesman for three years. But Trump did not fire him then. Comey found the allegations confounding, according to his associate, and wondered what to make of what he described as unusual thoughts coming from his new boss.
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