President Donald Trump Friday doubled down on his Twitter suggestion on canceling the daily White House press briefings because "you have a level of hostility that's incredible" from the press.
"We don't have press conferences," Trump told Fox News host Jeanine Pirro for an interview to be broadcast on Saturday.
"You don't mean that?" she asked.
"Just don't have them," Trump responded. "Unless I have them every two weeks – and I do it myself.
"We don't have them. I think it's a good idea.
"First of all, you have a level of hostility that's incredible," he explained. "It's very unfair."
President Trump earlier Friday sent two Twitter posts defending his press staff in the days since he fired FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Trump told NBC News that he had fired Comey because he was a "showboat" and "grandstander" – contradicting earlier White House statements that he was dismissed because of his public statements last year on the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
Begun formally during the Woodrow Wilson administration, the briefings are now typically held daily by the White House press secretary or deputy press secretary.
In light of the flap over the Comey firing, President Trump said "yes, that's true" when Pirro suggested that his administration was "moving so quickly that your communications department cannot keep up with you."
Trump also defended White House spokesman Sean Spicer and his deputy, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was in the hot seat for two days on the Comey firing.
"Sarah Huckabee is a lovely young woman," he told Pirro. "You know Sean Spicer. He's a wonderful human being. He's a nice man."
But when Pirro asked whether Spicer "will be there tomorrow," Trump would only say: "He's doing a good job, but he gets beat up."
"Will he be there tomorrow?" she pressed.
"Well, he's been there from the beginning."
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