Of the few media outlets who seem to have direct access to officials in D.C., the Washington Post reported that White House officials and others close to Trump are worried that the Senate Intelligence Committee's hearing with James Comey is going to distract the President. As Blasting News pointed out, some officials are saying that President Trump is planning to take to Twitter during the former FBI official's testimony to attack him.
As the article recalls, other officials have set similar expectations in the past when speaking with the media such as when Blasting News reported that they were planning to go after special prosecutor Robert Mueller.
In a similar gesture, it's also been reported that the White House would put together a war room to counter reports on the Trump-Russia criminal investigation, an idea that has apparently been shelved due to internal conflicts.
Aides say that Trump will be busy
As with many of these reports, the administration has denied them and aides recently said that the President would not have the time to tweet his responses to the hearing. One of these aides is Press Secretary Sean Spicer who said that the President would be busy on Thursday working to pursue his agenda and on the priorities that he had been elected for. The Washington Post article titled: " Trump, furious and frustrated, gears up to punch back at Comey testimony," said that Trump would hold a speech with the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s conference in Washington at 12:30 PM, but his schedule will be wide open that morning when Comey makes his testimony.
Trump looks stronger on Twitter
The view that he's distracted or furious at the upcoming testimony would only serve to make him look more vulnerable than he would prefer, as many aides deny that he's going to be distracted by the hearing. One conservative Washington lawyer named Jay Sekulow has reportedly been visiting with the President lately and told the Post that Trump is not distracted at all.
He said that the President is in control and in command and that there is no sense of panic or anxiety. But the president has already started using Twitter to attack the press over his use of social media, tweeting on Tuesday morning that the mainstream media was trying to stop him from being honest on Twitter.
The Post article referred to former surrogates Roger Stone and Newt Gingrich who said that Trump won't take the hearing lying down.
Gingrich, for instance, said that with all of the negative reporting, that the President wasn't going to let a "guy" like Comey smear him without punching back. Roger Stone also said that Donald Trump was the best counterpuncher he'd ever seen in politics and verified that Trump would go after Comey during the hearing.
