'That seems like a threat': ABC anchor grills Trump's homeland security adviser on the president's CNN body-slam tweet

President Donald Trump's homeland security adviser was asked on Sunday to respond to the president's tweet featuring a video portraying him beating up a man with the CNN logo superimposed onto his face.

ABC's "This Week" host Martha Raddatz played the video for homeland security adviser Thomas Bossert, who had not yet seen the tweet, and asked him to respond.

"There's a lot of cable news shows that reach directly into hundreds of thousands of viewers and they're really not always very fair to the president," Bossert said after he finished watching the video. "So I'm pretty proud of the president for developing a Twitter and a social media platform where he can talk directly to the American people."

Bossert then praised Trump as "the most genuine president and most non-politician president that we've seen in my lifetime" and lauded his ability to communicate with voters.

"He certainly can communicate to the people, but I want to ask you: Is that the kind of communication you want, that he's beating up on somebody? That he's beating up on the media?" Raddatz asked. "You're in charge of homeland security there. That seems like a threat."

Bossert replied that it was "certainly not" a threat. "I think that no one would perceive that as a threat; I hope they don't," he added. Reiterating his previous statement, he said Trump "has a right" to respond to cable news platforms that he views are unfair to him.

"You don't think that's a threat to anyone?" Raddatz asked. "You don't think that's sending a message: 'Do that to the media. Do that to CNN'?"

"No, I certainly don't," Bossert replied. He said the president was expressing himself "genuinely" and that he had been elected by people because they found him to be someone they could "understand and relate to."

Raddatz continued pressing Bossert and brought up deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders' statement from Thursday in response to Trump's feud with MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski last week.

"The president in no way form or fashion has ever promoted or encouraged violence," Sanders said at the White House press briefing on Thursday. "If anything, quite the contrary. He's simply pushing back and defending himself."

Raddatz also touched on last month's tragic baseball shooting, during which a fervent Trump critic and Bernie Sanders supporter opened fire on congressional Republicans, critically wounding House Majority Whip Steve Scalise.

"You know what happened to Congressman Scalise, and you have these messages out there against the media, and the media has had — I hate this to be all about us, but [Trump] is making it about us, or particularly CNN — some people had to get private security guards," Raddatz said. "Is that really fair?"

When Bossert continued praising Trump for communicating directly with the people, Raddatz interrupted him. "I'm talking about the message," she said. "Not how he communicates — the message."

"But it's a good example of you or the media producers here deciding what it is that we talk about and what it is we don't talk about," Bossert said. "And so, with respect, I think that that's why he needs to go around you and the producers that control the message, and directly to the people ... and occasionally he likes to speak about those cable programs that are beating up on him unfairly."

Real reason Trump sacked FBI director Comey

Following speculations surrounding his dismissal,The New York Times reported on Wednesday that President Donald Trump sacked former FBI Director James Comey, days  after Comey  requested additional funding and personnel for the agency’s probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

According to the newspaper, Comey had asked Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein last week for a significant boost in resources and later briefed U.S. lawmakers on the request, the New York Times said, citing three unnamed officials.

Trump Defends Firing Of FBI Chief; Democrats Demand Independent Russia Probe

President Donald Trump defended his firing of FBI Director James Comey on Wednesday, fighting a storm of criticism that the ouster was aimed at blunting an agency probe into his presidential campaign’s possible collusion with Russia to sway the 2016 election.

The Republican president’s abrupt move on Tuesday stunned Washington and was swiftly condemned by Democrats and by some in his own party. Senior Democrats pressed for an independent investigation into the Russia issue.

In a series of posts on Twitter on Wednesday morning, Trump sought to explain his move and lambasted his critics.

“Comey lost the confidence of almost everyone in Washington, Republican and Democrat alike. When things calm down, they will be thanking me,” he said. “The Democrats have said some of the worst things about James Comey, including the fact that he should be fired, but now they play so sad!” he said.

The Trump administration said on Tuesday Comey’s firing was over his handling of an election-year FBI probe into then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state.

Many Democrats have criticized Comey’s management of that investigation, but they sharply questioned the timing of his dismissal, given that Trump could have acted soon after taking office on Jan. 20 and that he has repeatedly criticized the FBI and congressional probes into alleged Russian involvement in the election.

Republicans control both chambers of Congress, and a growing number of Republicans also expressed doubts over Trump’s move. However, the Senate majority leader, Republican Mitch McConnell, ridiculed Democrats’ criticism, saying they were “complaining about the removal of an FBI director who they themselves repeatedly and sharply criticized.”

On the Senate floor, McConnell also dismissed Democratic calls for the Justice Department to appoint a special prosecutor to look into Moscow’s role in the 2016 election and possible ties between Trump associates and Russia. McConnell said a new investigation would “only serve to impede” existing probes such as one under way in the Senate intelligence committee.

The Senate’s minority leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should appoint a special prosecutor, adding, “If there was ever a time when circumstances warranted a special prosecutor, it is right now.”

Schumer also called on McConnell to hold closed and potentially classified briefings with all U.S. senators to question Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Rosenstein.

Schumer said such briefings should address why Sessions, who previously recused himself from involvement in the Russia investigation after misstating his own contacts in 2016 with Russia’s ambassador to Washington, was able to influence the firing of the man conducting the FBI’s Russia investigation.

“We know Director Comey was leading an investigation in(to) whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians, a serious offense. Were those investigations getting too close to home for the president?” Schumer said.

Vice President Mike Pence said Comey’s firing was unrelated to the Russia probe. Trump was in the process of evaluating candidates with “great integrity and great experience” to take over the FBI, Pence told reporters after meetings with lawmakers in the U.S. Capitol.

U.S. stocks were lower and Treasury benchmark yields retreated on Wednesday as Comey’s firing spurred some concern among investors that the fallout could hinder the president’s economic agenda.

‘CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS’

Some Democrats compared Trump’s move to the “Saturday Night Massacre” of 1973, in which President Richard Nixon ordered the firing of an independent special prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal that eventually led Nixon to resign.

“What we have now is really a looming constitutional crisis that is deadly serious,” Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal told CNN.

Trump hit back at Blumenthal in his Twitter messages, referring to him as “Richie,” calling his comments on the Comey firing “a joke” and alluding to a years-old controversy over the senator’s military service during the Vietnam War era.

Among Republicans expressing doubts about Comey’s dismissal, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, said, “The timing, obviously, it raises questions. I conveyed directly to the White House the need late last night to make sure they nominate someone (to replace Comey) that is absolutely beyond reproach.”

Republican Senator John McCain said on CNN he has not seen a “good explanation” for the firing, adding the Clinton email investigation was not “sufficient rationale for removing the director of the FBI, and I regret that it’s happened.”

U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in a January report that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered an effort to disrupt the 2016 election that included hacking into Democratic Party emails and leaking them, with the aim of helping Trump.

Russia has repeatedly denied any such meddling. The Trump administration denies allegations of collusion with Russia.

LAVROV VISIT

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is visiting Washington this week for high-level meetings, including one with Trump at the White House scheduled on Wednesday morning in what will be Trump’s highest-level contact with Putin’s government since he took office.

Asked by reporters at the U.S. State Department before a meeting with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson if Comey’s firing would cast a shadow over the talks, Lavrov responded in a sarcastic tone: “Was he fired? You’re kidding. You’re kidding.”

The Kremlin said it hoped Comey’s firing would not affect Moscow’s ties with Washington, saying it believed his dismissal had nothing to do with Russia.

Legal experts said Trump’s dismissal of Comey does not mean the FBI’s Russia investigation will be disrupted or end, since career FBI staffers can continue the probe even as the search for a new director begins.

Comey’s deputy, Andrew McCabe, took over as acting FBI director while the White House looks for a new permanent director. Trump said in a tweet that Comey “will be replaced by someone who will do a far better job, bringing back the spirit and prestige of the FBI.”

Trump Fires 46 Federal Prosecutors Hired During Obama Era

The administration of US President Donald Trump on Friday moved to clean house at the Justice Department, demanding the resignations of 46 federal prosecutors appointed during the two terms of his predecessor Barack Obama.

Presidents often order political appointees in several agencies to resign when they take office, but the abrupt nature of the move caught some by surprise — especially given that so many were asked to leave at once.

High-profile Manhattan prosecutor Preet Bharara was among those asked to leave — even though he met with Trump before the Republican took office and said he was asked to stay on.

Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said Attorney General Jeff Session had asked “all remaining 46 presidentially appointed US Attorneys to tender their resignations in order to ensure a uniform transition.”

“Until the new US Attorneys are confirmed, the dedicated career prosecutors in our US Attorney’s Offices will continue the great work of the department in investigating, prosecuting, and deterring the most violent offenders.”

Later Friday, another Justice Department spokesman, Peter Carr, said Trump had asked two to stay on — current acting deputy attorney general Dana Boente and the man he picked to take over that position, Rod Rosenstein.

“The President called Dana Boente and Rod Rosenstein tonight to inform them that he has declined to accept their resignation, and they will remain in their current positions,” Carr said.

It was not immediately clear if other resignations would eventually be declined.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said he was “troubled” to learn of the mass request for resignations, especially that of Bharara, and said it had not been done in an “orderly fashion” as seen in the past.

“By asking for the immediate resignation of every remaining US Attorney before their replacements have been confirmed or even nominated, the president is interrupting ongoing cases and investigations and hindering the administration of justice,” Schumer said in a statement on Facebook.