Excerpts of an ABC News interview between President Donald Trump and George Stephanopoulos continue to come out.
In the latest revelations, Trump called the ABC News anchor a “wise guy” for correcting the president.
Stephanopoulos had questioned Trump during his interview at the White House why he was willing to give several answers on Don McGahn, his former counsel, but wasn’t willing to testify before special counsel Robert Mueller in person to discuss it in detail.
“If you answer these questions to me now, why not answer them to Robert Mueller under oath?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“Because they were looking to get us for lies, for slight misstatements,” Trump said, calling the process “very unfair.”
Trump laid out a number of ways in which he was cooperative with the investigation.
“You didn’t answer questions on obstruction,” Stephanopoulos pointed out.
“Wait a minute, wait a minute, I did answer questions. I answered them in writing,” Trump retorted.
“Not on obstruction,” Stephanopoulos highlighted again.
“Look, George, you’re being a little wise guy, OK, you know, which is typical for you,” Trump groused.
.@ABC NEWS EXCLUSIVE: Pres. Trump tells @GStephanopoulos he never suggested firing special counsel Robert Mueller—and what ex-White House counsel Don McGahn told Mueller “doesn’t matter". https://t.co/UVWL3BjvLg pic.twitter.com/EwKGTnQ0kJ
— Good Morning America (@GMA) June 14, 2019
The Mueller report, of which a redacted version was made public earlier this year, detailed at least 10 instances in which the president may have committed a crime of obstruction of justice, the Associated Press reported.
Trump, for example, tried to put pressure on former FBI director James Comey to end a probe that was looking into misdeeds by Trump’s first national security adviser Michael Flynn.
The Mueller report also questioned whether Trump obstructed justice when he fired Comey in May 2017. The day after he was fired, Trump stated that he “faced great pressure” because of the Russia investigation Comey had been leading at the time. “That’s taken off,” Trump added.
Other issues abound in the report, including efforts by Trump to remove Mueller from the investigation itself, a move that the report details was thwarted several times because of people like McGahn who refused to carry out the president’s orders to do so.