BRIDGEWATER, N.J. (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump (all times local):
11:50 a.m.
Move over, alternative facts. Now, truth isn’t truth.
President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani used the line Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” with Chuck Todd.
Giuliani was trying to make the case that having Trump sit down for an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team wouldn’t accomplish much because of the he-said-she-said nature of witnesses’ recollections.
Giuliani says it’s “silly” to say Trump should testify “because he’s going to tell the truth and he shouldn’t worry” because “it’s somebody’s version of the truth. Not the truth.”
Todd insisted: “Truth is truth,” Giuliani responded: “Truth isn’t truth.” The comment left Todd flummoxed.
Trump and his aides have been criticized for spreading lies and disinformation. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway famously referred to it as “alternative facts.”
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8:35 a.m.
President Donald Trump is insisting that White House lawyer Don McGahn isn’t “a John Dean type ‘RAT.'”
Trump in a series of Sunday morning tweets is responding to a New York Times story reporting that McGahn has given hours of testimony to the special counsel investigating Russian election meddling.
Dean was White House counsel for President Richard Nixon during Watergate. He ultimately cooperated with prosecutors and helped bring down the Nixon presidency, though he served a prison term for obstruction of justice.
Trump says he allowed McGahn and others to testify. He says, “I didn’t have to. I have nothing to hide……”
Trump is also calling the investigation “McCarthyism at its WORST,” a reference to indiscriminate allegations made by Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s to expose communists.