Trump on possibility of firing Mueller and Rosenstein: 'They’re still here'
President Donald Trump didn't directly answer on Wednesday when asked whether he's determined it's not worth the political fallout to fire special counsel Robert Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein but he noted that both men are still in their jobs.
"They’ve been saying I’m going to get rid of them for the last three months, four months, five months. And they’re still here," Trump said in response to a reporter's question on the topic during a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday.
Trump has publicly voiced his frustrations with Mueller and Rosenstein, who oversees Mueller's investigation, which Trump has repeatedly described as a "witch hunt." Trump has previously said that many people have advised him that he should fire Mueller.
"I think it's a disgrace what's going on. We'll see what happens," Trump said last week when asked about whether he would consider firing Mueller. "But I think it's really a sad situation when you look at what happened. And many people have said, 'You should fire him.'"
The president Wednesday again denied broadly that there was any collusion between his campaign and the Russians, which is one of the questions that Mueller's team is investigating.
"There's no collusion," Trump said, going on to dismiss the notion as a Democrat-created hoax.
"This was a really a hoax created largely by the Democrats as a way of softening the blow of a loss which is a loss that frankly, they shouldn't have had from the standpoint that it's very easy for them," Trump said. "They have a tremendous advantage in the electoral college in is what it is and this is where it came from."
Even as he sought to discredit the basis for an investigation, the president made a point to insist that his cooperation has been complete and comprehensive.
"As far as the investigation, nobody has ever been as transparent as I have. I have instructed our lawyers: Be totally transparent," Trump said. "We have given them 1.4 million pages of documents, and haven’t used – as I know of for the most part – presidential powers or privilege.
The president also expressed his hope that "we’re coming to the end" of the investigation. "We want to get the investigation over with, done with. Put it behind us," Trump said.
