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President Trump said in an interview broadcast Sunday that he would probably not stand for an interview with special advocate, Robert S. Mueller III, claiming that "we have lost enough time on this witch hunt. and the answer is probably over. "
The president also claimed that he was unaware that his acting Attorney General, Matthew G. Whitaker, had viewed the investigation with skepticism with skepticism, despite reports that the two people would have had many conversations about the investigation during the past year.
Mr. Trump's comments were formulated during a very varied, sometimes difficult, interview with Chris Wallace, the host of "Fox News Sunday," who spoke with the President at the White House last week. The president continued to be on the defensive about his abandoned trip to a US military cemetery during a visit to Paris last week. dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed by people linked to the Saudi Crown Prince last month.
His comments on the Mueller Inquiry constituted an apparent reversal from one year after he stated that he was ready and willing to be questioned by the Special Council, which was investigating a possible collusion between the President's campaign and the Russian authorities in the 2016 election. Mr. Trump's legal team blunted on the idea, fearing that the president would be under oath, and gradually narrowed the path for such an interview.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly complained that Mr. Mueller had dragged out the investigation. Since the end of 2017, Mr. Mueller has asked to question Mr. Trump, whose lawyers have repeatedly tried to create conditions and reduce the scope of the response of the President.
His lawyers are working to provide written answers to some of Mr. Mueller's questions this week, but not all of them. Mr. Trump confirmed that his team would probably not answer the question of whether he was obstructing justice to defeat the investigation, stating bluntly: "There was no hindering justice. "
It remains to be seen whether Mr. Whitaker would support Mr. Trump's subpoena if Mr. Mueller asked for one; The president's advisers believe that he would not do it.
Prior to becoming Acting Attorney General this month, Whitaker made numerous public statements criticizing the investigation of Russia, showing clear hostility to the Special Council of Television and Social Media. – a fact that Mr. Trump insisted he did not know about the interview.
"I did not know that he had taken a stand on the Mueller inquiry as such," Mr Trump told Wallace. He said that even knowing that now, "I do not think it has had any effect."
Several media reported that Mr. Trump and Mr. Whitaker had discussed the investigation in the Oval Office, while Mr. Whitaker was Chief of Staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The day after the mid-term elections, Mr. Trump kicked out Mr. Sessions, who had long suffered from the President's anger following his challenge to the investigation.
When Mr. Wallace pointed out to Mr. Trump that Mr. Whitaker had predetermined that there had been no collusion in his public comment in the last two years, Mr. Trump stated, " He is right. What do you do when a person is right? There is no collusion. He turned out to be right. I mean, he said it. So, if he says that there is collusion, I am supposed to take someone who says there is some?
The President also seemed serene about the likelihood that her Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, will stay in office for much longer.
"Well, there is a chance," he said, when asked how likely he was to stay. "I like it a lot, I respect it a lot, I want it to be a lot harder on the border – a lot harder, one point."
Asked a similar question about his chief of staff, John F. Kelly, whose president privately questioned the president on politics, Trump said, "I have not even thought of John to this subject."
"There are some things that I like what he does," added the president. "And there are some things I do not like that he likes – it's not his strength, it's not that he does not do it – you know, he works so hard. He does a great job in a lot of ways, there are a number of things that are not his strength, it's not his fault, it's not his strength. "
When the discussion turned to Mr. Khashoggi's violent death, Mr. Trump said there was "no reason for me to hear the tape."
"Because it's a tape that suffers, it's a terrible tape," he said. "I have been fully informed about this. I have no reason to hear it. In fact, I told people, "Should I?" They said: There is no reason. I know exactly, I know everything that happens in the cassette without having to hear it.
The president over the weekend resisted reports that the C.I.A. concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of Mr. Khashoggi. He insisted on waiting for more information.
Trump also criticized retired naval commander William H. McRaven, who had not sponsored anyone in 2016, but had excoriated the president's leadership as a "Hillary Clinton fan" when Wallace mentioned his name. Mr. Trump then suggested that Mr. McRaven did not act quickly enough to capture the brain behind the attacks of September 11, 2001.
"It would not have been good if we had Osama bin Laden much earlier than that, would not he have been?" Said Mr Trump, before turning to the 39, pregnant where Bin Laden was killed in 2011. "You know, living – think about that – living in Pakistan, admirably in Pakistan in what I suppose they considered a pretty mansion – I do not know, I saw more beautiful. "
"You're not going to even give them credit for eliminating Bin Laden?" Asked one incredulous, Mr. Wallace.
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