There is a growing perception that President Donald trump bluffs or lies his way out of a dilemma. The best example of this is his recent admission there are no tapes of his conversation with fired FBI Director James Comey which took him six weeks to acknowledge.

As a result, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey found that many respondents believe more in the version of Comey on the turn of events that led to his firing than Trump’s version. The poll said 45 percent were more likely to believe in Comey than the 22 percent in Trump, The New York Post reported.

Party lines

The credibility of Comey is tested and proven along political party lines since 76 percent of Democrats believe in Comey. Among Republicans, only 50 percent believe in Trump, while among independents, 47 percent believe in Comey’s version of the story versus 17 percent in Trump.

The FBI director, in his June 28 testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Trump fired him because he did not stop the investigation on former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn as requested by the president. Trump, initially claimed he fired Comey over the director’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email server probe, but he later admitted he terminated Comey over the Russia investigation.

The poll also asked the respondents if they approved of Trump’s decision to fire Comey as director of FBI. About 46 percent disapproved the president’s decision, up from 38 percent in May. Only 27 percent approved of Comey’s termination.

Tweet is White House reply to Committee query

Meanwhile, the White House, in a letter to the Congress Intelligence Committee, just reconfirmed that Trump’s tweets are official responses and policies of the Trump administration.

It said the Tweet of the real estate billionaire about the committee’s request for information about records of conversation with Comey has complied with the tweet, Reuters reported.

The White House told Mike Conaway, the Republican representative, and Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House committee, the tweet is the reply to their query.

On June 9, the committee wrote to Don McGahn, a counsel of the White House, to ask about the existence of memos or recordings about Comey’s conversation with Trump.

Conaway said Trump’s tweet was not enough response. Schiff added the White House must answer in writing because the tweet “stopped short of denying the White House had tapes or recordings.”
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