Updated at 2:30 p.m. ET
President Trump is throwing doubt on statements made by his new attorney Rudy Giuliani that indicated the president reimbursed attorney Michael Cohen for his payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
Attempting to walk back statements by Giuliani, who joined Trump's legal team last month, Trump called the former New York mayor "a great guy" but said that he just "started a day ago" and "he'll get his facts straight."
Giuliani told Fox News on Wednesday night that Trump had paid Cohen a retainer of $35,000 a month, part of which went toward a $130,000 payment to Daniels, who alleges she had an affair with Trump.
Trump had previously stated he was unaware of any payments to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
Trump spoke to reporters Friday morning as he left the White House to travel to Dallas, where he will address the National Rifle Association convention, and again at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland as he prepared to board Air Force One.
After Trump's comments, Giuliani issued a statement in an effort "to clarify the views I expressed over the past few days." He said that "there was no campaign violation" and that his references to the timing of the payment "were not describing my understanding of the President's knowledge, but instead, my understanding of these matters." Giuliani also said the payment was made "to resolve a personal and false allegation in order to protect the President's family. It would have been done in any event," Giuliani said, "whether he was a candidate or not."
Trump also said that he would "love to meet" with special counsel Robert Mueller who is leading the Department of Justice Russia probe but that he wants to make sure he would be "treated fairly."
"I would love to go. Nothing I want to do more," but, Trump says, he needs to "find that we're going to be treated fairly, because everybody sees it now and it is a pure witch hunt."
Trump said that here are 13 "angry Democrats" working on the special counsel's investigation and that Mueller "worked for Obama for eight years." Actually, Mueller, a Republican, worked for George W. Bush for eight years and for President Barack Obama for 4 1/2 years.
At Andrews, Trump asserted that he was not backing away from his previous remarks in which he stated he knew nothing about payments to Daniels.
"We're not changing any stories," he said, admonishing reporters for "bringing up that kind of crap."
"You take a look at what I said," Trump told reporters Friday, when questioned about his previous statement.
In April, when asked whether he knew where the money came from to pay Daniels, Trump replied "No, I don't know."
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