The White House is in full attack mode just a few days before former FBI Director James Comey’s highly anticipated testimony on Capitol Hill.
President Trump’s aides fanned out across the networks to rip Comey as an incompetent FBI director, sparred with news anchors and defended Trump on everything from the controversial immigration executive order to his response to the weekend terrorist attack in England.
The president started off the week with a blizzard of tweets that ignited battles with the mayor of London, the media, Democrats and his own Justice Department.
Meanwhile, the administration flooded the zone with new policy initiatives. The White House held two background briefings with reporters in an effort to steer coverage toward Trump’s legislative agenda, even as anticipation over Comey’s testimony on Thursday dominated the political world.
The president announced plans to separate air traffic control from the federal government as part of a broader push to modernize the country’s infrastructure. Trump will travel to Ohio on Wednesday — a day before Comey’s testimony — to draw attention to the state’s crumbling waterway system. It’s part of the administration’s “Infrastructure Week” push, though it’s unlikely to be remembered as such by Friday.
Monday’s press briefing at the White House began with a surprise appearance from Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary David Shulkin, who announced an overhaul of the VA’s electronic records system.
Shulkin’s remarks served the dual purpose of cutting into the amount of time deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had to field questions from angry reporters, who pressed her about Comey and whether Trump had politicized the weekend terror attack in London.
At Monday’s briefing, the White House also made news by announcing Trump will allow Comey to testify and will not invoke executive privilege, removing a cloud of questions that hung over the administration for days.
Yet it remains to be seen how the White House will deal with Comey, whom Trump called a “showboat” and “grandstander” after the FBI director was fired last month. Will Trump or the White House communications team respond in real time to Comey’s public testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee? Or will Trump try to divert the news media’s attention to something else, which he did regularly on the campaign trail?
Trump’s schedule for Thursday has not yet been released.
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NEW: Team Trump in full attack mode ahead of Comey's testimony https://t.co/e04n1x39YN pic.twitter.com/9SMc5SbeMK
— The Hill (@thehill) June 5, 2017
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