In an extended media session with reporters on the north lawn of the White House Friday morning, President Donald Trump defending his outreach to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, blasted former FBI Director James Comey in the wake of an internal review of his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, and sparred with reporters over how the Trump Administration is separating illegal immigrant children from their families.
Mr. Trump began the unexpected media blitz by walking out to where Fox and Friends anchor Steve Doocy was broadcasting from the White House lawn, as the two engaged in a nearly 30 minute back-and-forth on a series of issues of note, beginning with Thursday's report from the Inspector General of the Department of Justice.
"Comey was the ringleader of this whole den of thieves," the President said on Fox, accusing top FBI officials of "plotting against his election," singling out the FBI's Peter Strzok, who said in an August 2016 text about Trump's bid for President - "We'll stop it."
"I am amazed that Peter Strzok is still at the FBI, and so is everybody else that read that report," the President said.
Here is the Fox and Friends interview:
After finishing that live appearance, the President was mobbed by reporters, as he then engaged in a spirited 20 minute give and take on the White House driveway.
As in the Fox News appearance, the President was peppered with questions about his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections, and the status of immigration legislation in the Congress.
"I did a great job this weekend," the President said of his Singapore summit, ridiculing critics who said he won nothing more than a paper thin promise from Kim Jong Un to denuclearize.
"If you're fair - which most of you aren't - but if you are fair, when I came in, people thought we were probably going to war with North Korea, as the President said he had opened new lines of communication with the Pyongyang regime, arguing that can only be seen as a good thing, as they work out the details of denuclearization.
The freewheeling impromptu news conference was spirited at times, as reporters pressed to get their questions, as sharply questioned the President, especially on his charge that Democrats were to blame for the Trump Administration's decision to separate illegal immigrant children from their parents, when taken into custody by U.S. border agents.
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