US President Donald Trump stayed off Twitter on Thursday, as former FBI Director James Comey testified in front of Congress, but his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, tweeted more than 80 times by 6:30pm that day, defending his father and criticizing Comey, the man his father fired last month.
Trump Jr in particular seized on Comey’s assertion that he interpreted the president’s statement that he “hoped” the FBI would drop its probe into former US National Security Adviser Michael Flynn as an instruction.”
NOT AMBIGUOUS
Photo: AFP
“Knowing my father for 39 years when he ‘orders or tells’ you to do something there is no ambiguity; you will know exactly what he means,” Trump Jr wrote.
He also pointed to Comey’s revelation that he had asked a friend to pass along to the press memos he had written documenting his interactions with the president.
“Did I miss something or did Comey just say he asked a friend to leak information to the press?” Trump Jr asked. “Is this a joke?”
“That was fun,” Trump Jr wrote at the end of the hearing.
He and his brother, Eric, now run their father’s business in New York.
The president stayed silent, letting his personal attorney, Marc Kasowitz, do the talking.
Kasowitz read a prepared statement to reporters in response to Comey’s testimony, in which he said the president had “never, in form or substance” directed Comey to stop investigating anyone.
He also labeled Comey a leaker, accusing him of “unauthorized disclosures” of “privileged communications” he had had with the president.
Trump spent Thursday morning meeting with his secretary of state, secretary of defense and national security adviser, discussing North Korea, the Persian Gulf region and other matters, White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
He then headed to the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual conference, where he delivered a speech.
The president told the gathering that “we’re under siege.”
“But we will come out bigger and better and stronger than ever. You watch,” he said.
The president, who spent time meeting with Kasowitz after returning from the speech, also declined to answer questions about the testimony at a panel with governors and local government leaders who had come to the White House to talk about infrastructure.
FEELING GOOD
The president felt good about the testimony, which proved him right in several cases and included the revelation that Comey had leaked information to reporters, according to one person familiar with his thinking.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the president’s thinking.
Despite the dramatic testimony, Sanders tried to downplay the significance.
“In terms of the mood in the White House, I would say that it’s a regular Thursday at the White House. We’re carrying on,” she said.
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