JOHN BERMAN (HOST): More breaking news this morning. Honesty is an unreasonable expectation, that is the message from the president of the United States this morning after the initial explanations released by the White House this week about why the FBI director was fired were proven to be untrue. Moments ago, he wrote, “As a very active president with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy. Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future press briefings and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy?” You could cancel briefings, you could do that. Another choice would be to cancel lies. This was the White House on Wednesday on the issue of who first decided to fire James Comey.
[BEGIN VIDEO]
HALLIE JACKSON: -- So it is the White House's assertion that Rod Rosenstein decided on his own, after being confirmed, to review Comey's performance?
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: Absolutely.
JOHN KARL: Isn't it true that the president had already decided to fire James Comey, and he asked the Justice department to put together the rationale for that firing?
HUCKABEE SANDERS: No.
[END VIDEO]
[...]
BERMAN: And now, this is the new, official, presidential version from last night.
[BEGIN VIDEO]
DONALD TRUMP: I was going to fire Comey. My decision. It was not --
LESTER HOLT: You had made the decision before they came in the room?
TRUMP: I was going to fire Comey. I was going to fire regardless of recommendation.
[END VIDEO]
BERMAN: Happy Friday everyone. A phrase, by the way, first coined by the president after he came up with ‘prime the pump.’
