Trump attempts to backtrack on 'this Russia thing' comments after Comey firing

President provides no evidence to support his claim that NBC News 'fudged' his comments

Donald Trump has accused one of America's most respected news anchors of “fudging” an interview in which he admitted “this Russia thing” had been a consideration in his decision to fire former FBI director James Comey.

The president told Lester Holt that the agency’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and claims of ties between Mr Trump’s associates and the Kremlin had been a factor in the decision to remove Mr Comey from his job.

But in an angry series of tweets, Mr Trump appeared to suggest he had been misrepresented by the veteran NBC News journalist.

“What’s going on at @CNN is happening, to different degrees, at other networks – with @NBCNews being the worst. The good news is that Andy Lack(y) is about to be fired(?) for incompetence, and much worse. When Lester Holt got caught fudging my tape on Russia, they were hurt badly!,” he wrote.

Andrew Lack has been the chairman of NBC News and its sister cable channel MSNBC since 2015.

Mr Trump did not provide any evidence to support his claim that the interview had been fudged or doctored and the White House did not respond to requests for an explanation of precisely what Mr Trump was alleging.

NBC News also declined to comment.

Mr Trump was interviewed by Lester Holt for NBC News two days after he fired Mr Comey.

Speaking about his decision, he said: “When I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won. And the reason they should have won it is the electoral college is almost impossible for a Republican to win. Very hard. Because you start off at such a disadvantage. So everybody was thinking, they should have won the election. This was an excuse for having lost an election.”

He added that he knew the move may actually prolong the investigation.

Special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and potential links with Mr Trump's campaign and the Kremlin is investigating Mr Comey's firing as a potential obstruction of justice.

In the interview with Mr Holt, Mr Trump went on to say: “I said to myself, I might even lengthen out the investigation. But I have to do the right thing for the American people. He’s the wrong man for that position.”

After calling Mr Comey "a showboat" “a showboat”, he added: “I want to find out if there was a problem with an election having to do with Russia. Or, by the way, anybody else. Any other country. And I want that to be so strong and so good. And I want it to happen. I also want to have a really competent, capable director. He’s not.”

Mr Trump’s lawyers and other supporters have contended that that sentiment was actually helpful for the president, suggesting he could not have been trying to obstruct the investigation by doing something he knew could extend it.

His unsubstantiated claim of “fudging” by Mr Holt came amid an early-morning Twitter rant, in which Mr Trump called for the directors of CNN and NBC News to be sacked.

“Truth doesn’t matter to them,” he claimed

Additional reporting by agencies