President Donald Trump on Thursday denied any collusion between his presidential campaign and Russia.
"This was set up by the Democrats. There's no collusion between me and my campaign and Russians," Trump told NBC in an interview. "The other thing is, the Russians did not affect the vote, and everybody seems to think that."
The Senate and House intelligence committees are currently investigating Russia's efforts to intervene in the 2016 presidential election, as well alleged ties between Trump's campaign and the Kremlin.
While Trump himself has accepted intelligence reports concluding that Russia engaged in cyber attacks during the November presidential election, he has repeatedly lambasted as “fake news” any suggestion that he or his staff had connections to Russia.
Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton claims Russia’s cyber attacks against her campaign and the Democratic National Committee played a role in her losing the election to Trump.
Former FBI Director James Comey, who was dismissed by Trump this week, also confirmed in March that the bureau was conducting its own probe into the matter and any coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Trump told NBC on Thursday that he wants the FBI's investigation to "be so strong and so good."
In excerpts from the interview released earlier on Thursday, Trump clarified he planned to fire Comey regardless of the Justice Department’s recommendation.
"I was going to fire regardless of the recommendation,” Trump said, adding, "He's a showboat, he's grandstander, the FBI has been in turmoil. You know that, I know that. Everybody knows that. You take a look at the FBI a year ago, it was in virtual turmoil, less than a year ago. It hasn't recovered from that."