President Donald Trump on Wednesday called Hillary Clinton his “opponent” and deflected questions about his administration by invoking Clinton’s stated positions, though it is nearly a year since Clinton last participated in politics.
Fox News’ John Roberts asked Trump at a joint press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg whether he would be willing to meet with special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
In response, Trump said there was “no collusion” between himself or his campaign and Russia. He also referred to Clinton’s interview with the FBI in July 2016 regarding her use of a private email server.
“When you talk about interviews, Hillary Clinton had an interview where she wasn’t sworn in, she wasn’t given the oath, they didn’t take notes, they didn’t record, and it was done on the 4th of July weekend,” Trump said. “That’s perhaps ridiculous.”
Contrary to his claim, the FBI did take notes on Clinton’s interview with investigators, and released those notes, as well as its summary of the interview, in September 2016. The agency has a long-standing policy of not recording its interviews, which are instead documented using a summary form.
Trump again brought up Clinton when Roberts asked Solberg about her position on the possibility of working with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
After Solberg answered, Trump jumped in: “Just to add to the answer, I think it is much better to work with Russia.”
Trump cited his positions regarding energy sources and military development as proof, and compared the former to Clinton’s campaign stance on the subject.
“I will say this, I am for massive oil and gas and everything else, and a lot of energy. Putin can’t love that. I am for the strongest military that the United States ever had. Putin can’t love that,” he said. “But Hillary was not for a strong military, and Hillary, my opponent, was for windmills and she was for other types of energy that don’t have the same capacities at this moment, certainly.”
Clinton conceded the 2016 election to Trump more than a year ago.
