White House says Trump will be ‘very busy’ the day Comey testifies

The White House would not say whether President Donald Trump will watch when fired FBI Director James Comey testifies before Congress on Thursday, insisting that Trump has a “very, very busy day" that day.

Press secretary Sean Spicer also strenuously defended Trump's tweets on Tuesday, saying they represent official presidential statements.


“The president is the most effective messenger on his agenda,” Spicer said when asked during the daily press briefing about criticism of the president's Twitter habits. “The same people who are critiquing his use of it now critiqued it during the election. It turned out pretty well for him then.”

But Spicer would not say if Trump will be tuning in — or tweeting about — Comey’s much anticipated Thursday appearance. One report on Tuesday said Trump may live-tweet during Comey's testimony.

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“The president’s got a full day on Thursday,” Spicer said. “The president’s going to have a very, very busy day and, as he does all the time, I think his focus is going to be on pursuing the agenda and priorities that he was elected to do.”

Trump fired Comey in May, and the president said later that he was thinking about the FBI’s investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign when he made the move.

Comey is expected to testify about conversations he had with Trump while he led the FBI, including reports that Trump asked him to end the FBI’s investigation into former national security adviser and Trump ally Michael Flynn. Trump has previously taken to Twitter to slam the Russia investigation as a “witch hunt” and “fake news.”

His tweets should be taken as the official stances of the president, Spicer said on Tuesday.

“The president is the president of the United States, so they’re considered official statements of the president of the United States,” he said.

