President also insisted on Friday morning he ‘didn’t know’ Matt Whitaker but that he is ‘very highly thought of’

Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that he had not discussed the Mueller investigation with his new acting attorney general, Matt Whitaker.

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The president was speaking before departing for Paris to join other world leaders in western Europe for ceremonies commemorating 100 years since the end of the first world war.

Trump said he “didn’t speak to Matt Whitaker” about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and possible collusion and obstruction by the Trump campaign, before he named him to the elevated role earlier this week. On Wednesday, Trump fired the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, and named Whitaker as his replacement at the justice department.

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On Friday morning Trump also insisted both that he “didn’t know” Whitaker, a former US attorney and Republican candidate in Iowa, and that he was “very highly thought of”.

Trump also dismissed the controversy over whether his designation of Whitaker to serve as acting attorney general was legal. Whitaker, who was serving as chief of staff for Sessions, was not serving a post that required Senate confirmation.

An op-ed in the New York Times by the former solicitor general Neal Katyal and prominent Republican attorney George Conway laid out this argument on Thursday. Conway is the husband of the top White House aide Kellyanne Conway. However, Trump derided his argument, calling him “Mr Kellyanne Conway” and insisted that Conway, who has been a critic of Trump, was only interested in publicity.

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Trump dismissed concerns that Whitaker had not been confirmed by the Senate by noting Mueller had not been confirmed either. Serving as a special counsel does not require Senate confirmation by statute. Trump also labeled a question from a reporter about whether he wants Whitaker to restrict Mueller’s investigation as “stupid”.

On Friday morning, the Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer questioned the legality of Whitaker’s appointment as acting attorney general, which was not confirmed by the Senate, and sent the president a list of questions about the move.

He said: “President Trump has ignored the statutory line of succession and potentially violated the appointments clause of the constitution, which requires all principal officers of the government to be nominated by the president by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.”

On Friday afternoon, the Senate’s top Republican expressed confidence that the Russia investigation will be allowed to run its course, saying Trump has never signaled to him that Mueller could be fired.

Speaking to reporters in his home state, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, also predicted that Whitaker’s stint as acting attorney general will be short. “I think this will be a very interim AG,” he said, adding that he thinks the president will “pretty quickly” send the Senate a nominee for a new attorney general.

“The president has said repeatedly he’s not going to dismiss the Mueller investigation. He’s said repeatedly it’s going to be allowed to finish. That also happens to be my view,” he said.

McConnell, who sets the Senate’s agenda, reiterated that legislation to protect Mueller from firing is unnecessary. The departing Republican senator Jeff Flake and the Democratic Senator Chris Coons say they will try to force a vote next week on the measure.

Meanwhile, during his conversation with the press outside the White House, Trump also condemned CNN’s chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, who had his access to the White House revoked earlier this week in an unprecedented move, in which the administration also issued a controversial video. Trump, a frequent critic of Acosta, said the reporter was a “very unprofessional guy” and insisted: “I don’t think he’s a smart person, but he’s got a loud voice.”

Trump defended the ban by saying: “This is a very sacred place. You have to treat the White House with respect. You have to treat the presidency with respect.”

Trump dismissed Michelle Obama’s criticism of him in her upcoming memoirs. “I guess she wrote a book,” he said. “She got paid a lot of money to write a book and they always insist you come up with controversial.” He added: “I’ll give you a little controversy back; I’ll never forgive [Barack Obama] for what he did to our United States military.”