President Donald Trump — with a forceful guiding hand from the “Fox and Friends” hosts — tried to clean up his comments on accepting foreign “oppo research” about his political enemies Friday morning.
“I don’t think anybody would present me with anything because they know how much I love the country,” he said of foreign governments offering him intel. “If I don’t listen, you are not going to know. If I thought anything was incorrect or badly stated I’d report it to attorney general, the FBI, I’d report it to law enforcement absolutely.”
He dodged out of a more specific question though, when host Brian Kilmeade presented him with a hypothetical situation of a world leader offering him damaging information on a political opponent in the course of a normal meeting or summit.
“The President of the United States, no matter who it is, whether it’s me or anybody else, is in a much different position because I hear things that frankly, good, bad or indifferent that other people don’t hear, just in normal conversation,” Trump replied. “But nobody is going to say bad things to me, they know I’m a very straight player, they know one thing about me: I love the country more than anything.”
Trump tries to clean up foreign dirt comments pic.twitter.com/4i3KEX7lMN
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) June 14, 2019
Trump’s comments, that he would accept dirt from foreign entities and would not necessarily turn it over to the FBI, proved difficult for his TV allies to spin — Kilmeade in particularly urged him to “clarify” his remarks — and even prodded Republican lawmakers to gently criticize the President.
