President Donald Trump on Friday will officially take questions from reporters for the first time in three weeks, standing next to Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.
The brief news conference — where each President will take two questions from the press — comes the day after James Comey’s bombshell Capitol Hill testimony in which the fired FBI director accused the White House of “lies.”
Trump was publicly silent while Comey testified on Thursday, but tweeted Friday an accusation that Comey — whom Trump fired in May — lied under oath.
“Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication,” Trump tweeted, “and WOW, Comey is a leaker!”
Trump’s comment tracks with Republican talking points about the hearing, where the Republican National Committee and White House urged surrogates to emphasize the fact that Comey clearly said the President was never an explicit subject of the Russia probe during his time at the FBI.
But Comey’s testimony about the President has darkened clouds hanging over the White House.
The former FBI director said Trump’s private comments urging him to drop the probe into former national security adviser Michael Flynn led him to tell his Justice Department colleagues they needed to be careful. And he said multiple times that he choose to take detailed notes about his interactions with Trump because he worried the White House and President would lie about them if he didn’t.
Trump has remained relatively media shy since the Justice Department tapped former FBI Director Robert Mueller to be the special counsel looking into Russia’s meddling into the 2016 election and the Trump campaign’s possible ties to it.
The President last formally took questions on May 18, when he held a bilateral news conference — similar to the one that will happen Friday — with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.