Transcript for Trump accuses top Justice Department officials of staging a coup

to president trump, lashing out tonight, after that 60 minutes interview last night with former acting FBI director Andrew Mccabe. During the interview, Mccabe talked about top justice to record the president. It never happened, but the president tonight calling the discussion treasonous. Here's ABC's senior white house correspondent Cecilia Vega. Reporter: President trump today lashed out at top justice department officials, accusing them of staging a coup, calling it illegal and treasonous. This, after former acting FBI directorrew Mccabe's jaw-dropping description of the chaos surrounding the firing of James Comey. It was incredibly turbulent, incredibly stressful. Reporter: Mccabe tells "60 minutes" he and deputy attorney general rod Rosenstein were stunned when the president acknowledged he had Russia on his mind when he fired Comey. I said, you know, this Russia thing with trump and Russia is a made-up story. Reporter: After the president gloated about his decision to fire Comey to Russian officials in the oval office, that's when Mccabe says Rosenstein discussed the idea of invoking the 25th amendment to remove the president from office, even raising the idea of secretly recording him. He said, "I never get searched when I go into the white house. I could easily wear a recording device. They wouldn't know it was there." Now, he was not joking. He was absolutely serious. Reporter: In a carefully worded statement, the justice department said Rosenstein never authorized any wiretaps of president trump, calling Mccabe's version of events "Inaccurate and factually incorrect." But Mccabe, who was fired for allegedly leaking to a reporter and misleading investigators about it, charges he denies, is digging in, saying president trump seemed to trust Vladimir Putin over his own intelligence team, describing one white house meeting about North Korea. The president said he did not believe that the north Koreans had the capability to hit us here with ballistic missiles in the United States. And he did not believe that because president Putin had told him they did not. Intelligence officials in the briefing responded that that was not consistent with any of the intelligence our government possesses, to which the president replied, "I don't care, I believe Putin." Strong reaction tonight on all sides from that Mccabe interview. Cecilia Vega live from the white house tonight. And Cecilia, another moment making headlines over the weekend, involving vice president Mike pence. The vice president, as you know, was discussing a security conference in Munich with many European leaders, and this was their reaction when he brought up the president. I bring greetings from the 45th president of the united States of America, president Donald Trump. A bit ofn awkward moment in the room, silence. This made headlines here and around the world. A real sign of the strain with some of our allies. Reporter: It was a standard applause line that was met with silence. Awkward, as you say, to say the least. But it wasn't just that moment. Germany's Angela Merkel blasted the trump administration over a trade issue with Ivanka Trump, right there, looking on, many ofthese European allies, united in their frustration with this administration's America first policies, David. All right, Cecilia Vega, thank you. Next, to the dramatic

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