Trump continues to fume over special counsel: 'It hurts our country terribly'

At a lunch with TV anchors Jake Tapper, Scott Pelley, Wolf Blitzer, Greta Van Susteren and George Stephanopoulos, among others, Donald Trump said he believes the appointment of a special counsel to head the Department of Justice’s Russia investigation “hurts our country terribly.”

Deputy FBI Director Rod Rosenstein on Wednesday announced former FBI Director Robert Mueller will lead the department’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

“I believe it hurts our country terribly, because it shows we’re a divided, mixed-up, not-unified country,” Trump said, according to CNN’s Tapper. "And we have very important things to be doing right now, whether it’s trade deals, whether it’s military, whether it’s stopping nuclear—all of the things we discussed today.”

“I think this shows a very divided country,” Trump added.

Trump also said the appointment of an special counsel “also happens to be pure excuse for the Democrats having lost an election that they should have easily won.”


“That’s all this is,” Trump said. “I think it shows division, and it shows that we’re not together as a country. And I think it’s a very, very negative thing. And hopefully, this can go quickly, because we have to show unity if we’re going to do great things with respect to the rest of the world.”