US: Trump threatens to cancel all future news briefings

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - President Donald Trump threatened Friday to "cancel all future 'press briefings'", saying it was impossible for his representatives to be perfectly accurate.

"As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!," Trump wrote in a flurry of early-morning tweets.

The announcement comes amid growing scrutiny from lawmakers and the media over Trump's decision to remove former FBI Director James Comey from office as the bureau investigates potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

The highly unusual dismissal has faced mounting questions after several White House rationales for Comey's ouster were publicly contradicted by the FBI's acting director during congressional testimony on Thursday.

"The Fake Media is working overtime today!" Trump said. "Again, the story that there was collusion between the Russians & Trump campaign was fabricated by Dems as an excuse for losing the election."

"James Comey better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!" he added.

Trump has claimed that Comey informed him three times that he was not personally being investigated as part of the FBI's probe. Andrew McCabe, Comey's standing successor, said the bureau would halt any further updates to the White House on the status of the inquiry.